Amnesia
by Marsdog
Summary: I wake up in the middle of the sea on the verge of death. Now I have no memory's and are being pursed by both the Neuroi and a group of mercenaries with no idea why. Join me as I fight to regain my memory's with the help of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing.
1. Chapter 1

I wake up in a panic as waves smash into my face and water fills my lungs. Rain pours down from the dark stormy sky onto my face. I am in the sea. I don't know where or how I got here. All I know is that I'm in trouble as I struggle against the waves trying to stay afloat.

Fear is the only thing I can feel right now. Fear of drowning, fear of disappearing under the waves never to be seen again and fear of dying fills my body as I struggle against the waves in the pouring rain. I've never known fear like this before.

The odds of making it out of this aren't good. I'm exhausted and I'm struggling to keep my head above the raging water. My only hope is to swim and hope I reach the shore before I drowned. I don't know which way will lead to the shore and safety but I have no choice but to guess and pray it leads me to safety.

I swim for less than a few seconds trying my best to pass myself. That's when a giant wave hits me from behind. The wave sends me down below the water in a spin. I resurface only to find another bigger wave coming towards me. I only have time to take a quick breath before the wave hits me sending me down into the darkness below the sea. The last thing I see as I slowly drift deeper down to my death is a bright light and angel flying down towards me coming to take me to haven.

* * *

"Hello can you hear me?" A blurry figure asks as it stands it over me in front of a bright white light. "Hey everyone he's waking up!"

"Turn down the lights I think he's blinded" Someone orders. The voices of the blurred figures all sound like they are from girls.

The lights get less bright and the blurry figures start to take human form. The blur stood over him turns into a young girl who looks like she's from Fuso. She has short brown hair and brown eyes. Beside her is a European girl with light brown hair and blue eyes.

"Are you ok?" Another voice asks. A woman with long red hair and eyes walks towards the bed I am laying in. She is wearing a Karlsland military uniform and is holding a clipboard in her hands.

"I fill a little dizzy but other than that I'm fine" I reply as the red haired woman stops beside my bed. I get the feeling that this red heads in charge around here.

"That's good" The red haired replies with a smile. "What happened to you anyway when one of my witches found you nearly dead in the sea she said no one else was anywhere near you and she couldn't spot a boat or plane wreckage anywhere?"

"I don't know" I reply trying to remember how I got in the middle of the sea in the first place but I can't. "I'm sorry I just can't remember how I ended up there"

"Ok so how about we start with your name than" The red haired suggests. "I'm Commander Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke"

"I'm… I'm John… John Goldie" I answer as my name slowly forms in my head.

"Nice to meet you" Minna replies as she writes my name down on her clip board. "Well we are going to be looking after you here until you're healed. Then you'll be transferred back to your unit"

"Where exactly is this place?" I ask her. "And what do you mean by unit?"

"You're currently in the medical ward of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing's base. We're based on the south coast of Britannia" Minna answers. "And your be sent back to your squad after you healed"

"I can't remember joining the army are you sure?" I ask as I try to bring up any memories of being in the army but fail to.

"Yes I'm sure about you being in the military because when you were brought here you were wearing a Britannian military uniform and according to your uniform you were ranked Major" Minna says before she turns round and walks out of the room.

What's happened to me? I can't remember joining the army and I can barely remember my own name. Worst of all I nearly die and can't remember how I got into the situation. What am I going to do? I could have a family and friends that are worried about me and I can't even remember them.

"Are you ok your starting to cry?" The Fuso girl asks as she and her European girl look at him with a worried look in his eyes.

"I'm fine I just can't believe this is happening" I tell them as I wipe my eyes clear of tears.

"Ok but we are here to help if you need us" The European girl asks in a Britannian accent with a smile on her face. "I'm Lynette Bishop by the way"

"Oh I'm sorry I forgot to introduce myself I'm Yoshika Miyafuji" The Fuso girl says with a bow.

"It's nice to meet both of you" I say with a smile that they both return.


	2. Chapter 2

I wake up in my bed as the sun rises over the horizon. The dizziness I felt last night is gone and I feel great. Now I just need to get my memories back. Looking around the room and I can see I'm alone. This room is bare, with only six beds including the one I'm on and two lights hang from the ceiling.

I decide to get up since I feel so great but after remembering how I felt last night I decide to take it slow. I start with sitting up on the bed and encounter no problems. I stand up and walk to the window without feeling light headed or dizzy.

I look through the window and see the most beautiful sight. The sun is rising over the crystal blue ocean and birds are starting to sing in the trees and field surrounding the base. The only other person I can see that's awake is a Fuso woman practicing her sword swings in the field below my window.

I turn back to my bed and notice a uniform neatly folded on a storage trunk at the foot of my bed. It must be my uniform as Minna said they found me wearing one. Now's when I notice that I've been wearing only my underwear and a thin pale blue hospital gown for the first time since I got here.

I quickly take off the hospital gown get dressed into the brown trousers, a pair of socks and black boats. I'm halfway through battening up my shirt when the door opens and Minna walks in.

"I'm sorry I didn't realise you wear changing" Minna says as she turns away from him.

"It's ok I'm nearly don now" I say as I button up my shirt.

"Well I've just come to see if you wanted some breakfast" Minna says with her back still turned to him.

"Great I'm starving and I'm dressed now you don't need to keep your back turned on me" I tell her and she immediately turns round.

"Well follow me then I'll take you to the dining hall" Minna says as she holds the door open for me.

We walk side by side through the base making friendly conversations about the weather and architecture of the base. The base looks like a palace so there's plenty to talk about as they make their way towards the dining hall.

When they finally enter the dining hall the place is already filled with half naked girls from all over the world. I spot Lynne and Yoshika in the centre of the girls serving everyone breakfast. All of a sudden as if they all sense me coming up behind the all of the girls turn to look at me.

"Hey Commander is he the boy Sanya fished out of the sea" A blond hair girl wearing a black Karlsland uniform.

"Yes he is Erica" Minna replies as the girls start to surround me making me feel like I'm a new toy.

"You didn't say he was cute every wise I would have seen him last night" Erica says giggling.

"That's why I didn't say it" Minna says as she eats down next to the Fuso woman who I saw practicing her sword swings earlier.

One by one the witches come up and introduce themselves except from the Fuso woman who remains in her seat next to Minna. Eventually everyone seat down or breakfast and Yoshika serves him a bowl of noodles.

"Udon noodles" Yoshika says as she hands him a fork. "Let me know if you don't like it I can always make something else"

Yoshika walks off before I can answer and I take my first of many bites of haven. Yoshika's cooking is amazing and the best I've ever had. Every mouthful I take is a like a mouthful of happiness that explodes in my mouth and tummy. I can't help but eat it all and I'm certain that the only thing that could stop me from fishing this dish would be death itself.

"So how did you end up in the sea?" Shirley asks from across the table.

"I can't remember" I tell her. "All I can remember is waking up in the sea on the verge of drowning before blacking out and waking up here"

"Well you must have been an idiot to wake up in the middle of the sea" Gertrud says arrogantly to me.

"Come on Trude the guy almost died and your already acting superior to him" Erica says as she grabs Gertrud's arm.

"That's because I would never have got in that situation to begin with" Gertrud says as she walks out of the room.

"Ignore her she's always got a stick up her ass" Shirley says as she watches Gertrud leaves.

"Yeah its ok it doesn't really bother me" I say as I finish my breakfast.

"Well anyway how about you and me find somewhere more privet before you leave and have some fun" Erica whispers in my ear as she bends over and wraps her arms around my neck and presses her chest into my back.

"He can't right now Erica and John I need to see me in my office when you're done here" Minna says as she pulls Erica off of me. "Ask Lynne to take you and tell her I need to speak with her too"

"Yes ma'am" I reply as she leaves.

"Ah the Commander wants you all to herself" Erica moans as she returns to her seat. "Let me know when she dumps you so we can have our fun"

"You'll be the first to know" I reply as I take my bowel and fork into the kitchen. Inside I find Lynne and Yoshika washing up their bowels as well as the pots and pans they used in making that delicious breakfast. "Uh Lynne Minna wants to see both of us in her office after your down washing up"

"Ok thanks for letting me know" Lynne replies as she takes a wet plate take Yoshika just washed and starts to dry it. "I'll be done in about five minutes"

"Ok, do you need a hand washing up?" I ask offering my help.

"No thank you we're fine" Lyne replies giving me a reassuring smile.

"Ok then I'll be waiting in the other room for you to finish then" I say as I leave. Ten minutes later Lynne and I re stood in Minna's office. Minna is sat across from us with the Fuso women stood behind her just off to her left.

"Ok before we begin I believe you haven't met my second in command yet" Minna says as the Fuso woman steps forward.

"I'm Major Mio Sakamoto" The Fuso woman says with a bowel.

"It's nice to meet you I'm John Goldie" I say.

"I received a report earlier today" Minna says getting back to business. "You were part of a unit covering the retreat at Dunkirk and have been reported KIA along with the rest of your unit"

"Wait did you say I was dead?" I ask in a panic as I can't believe what has happened to me in the past I can't remember.

"You were reported dead but obviously your alive otherwise we wouldn't be having this convention here" Minna tells me. "Seconded you have been assigned to the 501st Joint Fighter Wing until your memories return, at that point you will be debriefed by intel"


	3. Chapter 3

I spend all night lying awake on the hospital bed thinking through what Minna told me earlier. I've been dead for a long time and have no idea what happened to m and how I got here tonight. That's what's been keeping me awake all night. I haven't been eating away at my mind driving me mad.

Finally I give up on finding sleep and walk over to the window ad am greeted by the shining moon light. The moon is full and bright making the area around the base easy to see, it shines over the sea leaving a trail across its surface and there's not a cloud in the sky to block out its bright light. The stars shine just as right filling the sky with bright balls of light. The night looks so beautiful even as it shines down on the world.

I can't help but look out over the night sky and the illuminated base below that doesn't have a soul in sight or a single sound leave its surface. Everything looks so peace full down there. I wonder how the world can still have moments like this when I'm told an unstoppable enemy has laid waste to much of Europe killing millions of people in the process.

As I wonder that thought I see something hiding in the trees out of the corner of my eyes. A little flash of light appeared for a minute in the trees but quickly vanished before I could get a good look at it. The light seemed to be caused by light from the moon bouncing off some kind of metal.

Leaning out of the window to get a better look another flash appears in the forest followed by a quiet popping sound. Then a sharp stinging pain rips into my shoulder and a sudden force pushes me back over the railing and onto the floor. The pain only intensifies as I hit the floor causing a loud yell of pain from my lips that I'm sure would wake up the entire base. I lightly touch my shoulder before I move my hand in front of my face to find it's covered in blood. I've been shot. I don't know who shot me or why but I can hear them running away from the base as the snapping of trigs and crunching of leafs gets fainter and fainter.

"What happened?" Shirley asks as she runs into the room. When she sees me laying on the floor in a pool of my own blood her face goes pale and her eyes so fear in them. "Shit John, are you ok? You looked messed up?"

"I'm fine but stay down there's a sniper out there" I warn her as I desperately grip my shoulder trying in vain to stop the flow of blood leaving my wound. "I heard him moving around outside before you arrived but I don't know if he's given up or repositioned on us"

"Ok where is he?" Shirley asks as she lies down on her stomach like I suggested. "Lucchini go tell Commander Minna and get Yoshika here quickly" Shirley orders as she looks back to the doorway where Lucchini is probable standing.

"I'm on it" Lucchini replies from the doorway right before I hear the sounds of running.

I start to watch Shirley slowly crawl around the room collecting a first aid kit before she crawls up to me. She gives me a fake smile meant to reassure me and stop me from panicking as she opens up the first add kit.

"Hold still and I'll treat your shoulder, I've learned basic first add when I first joined the witches" Shirley tells me as she pores a bag of salt into my wound making my shoulder feel like it's on fire and another cry of pain to leave my mouth. "I can't fully treat you but I'll be able to keep you alive until Yoshika gets here"

"It's better than nothing" I reply as I grit my teeth at the burning in my shoulder and Shirley starts to wrap up my shoulder in a bandage.

"What happened?" Minna asks as she, Sakamoto, Gertrud and Erica run into the room followed by Yoshika, Lynne and Lucchini.

"Sniper" That's the only word I manage to say before I black out again.

The next time I wake up I'm back in my hospital bed as the sun rises. I almost think I dreamt about the sniper but as I begin to wake up I feel a shape pain rip across my shoulder, but that's not all I find. My chest feels unusually heavy and as I look down and find Erica sleeping on top of me.

Erica looks very peaceful and happy sleeping there. A smile covers the lower half of her face and one of her hands grips the blanket over my chest. I really didn't want to wake her because of how peaceful and happy sleeping there but unfortunately my movement to see who is laying on top of me has caused her to start stirring.

"Morning" Erica sleepily says as she sits up. I didn't realise until now that she's only wearing her underwear and I can't help but stare at her as she yawns and stretches. She catches me staring and her smile grows bigger before she asks. "Like what you see?"

"What are you doing on top of me?" I ask dodging the question and taking my eyes from her body to her eyes.

"Because I was too tired to get back to my own bed and you looked like you'll be comfy to lie on" Erica answers with a cheeky grin on her face. "Which you were by the way"

"So what happened after I blacked out?" I ask as I try to keep my mind of the fact that Erica's half naked.

"Well if I tell you will I get something in return?" Erica bends over and asks in a seductive voice as she runs one of her hands down my chest leaving a slight tingling sensation behind it.

"Nope because I could just as anyone else on the base for free" I reply and she responds by leaning back and laughing.

"Oh well it was worth a try" Erica sighs as she brushes my cheek with her hand. "I'll tell you" Here's what happened after I blacked out. .Yoshika and Lynne treated my wounds well Minna searched the area outside with the other witches and Sanya returned from her night patrol to conduct an aerial search of the area. They didn't find anybody or any sign of a sniper, the only proof there was one there is the bullet Yoshika pulled out of my shoulder which Erica now dangles over my head. "That's all that happened no I'm going to get ready for breakfast, see you later"


	4. Chapter 4

Minna summoned me to her office after breakfast again to speak to me about what happened last night, with her and the other witches not seeing anything or any sign of the sniper leaving me the only witness. I don't know what I'm going to say because all I saw was the muzzle flash and a reflection of light but I guess that's better than nothing right now.

I'm sat in her office opposite Minna and Major Sakamoto who are currently going over the reports of the events of last night. They probable already read the report before and are just giving it a quick read through to find the points that need clarifying by me, but they are still taking their time doing it.

"Ok John I need you to tell me everything you remember last night" Minna says as she puts down the report.

"Well I couldn't sleep so I was looking out of the window, I noticed a flash in the bushes below and before I could get a good look at the source of the flash I was hit by the bullet and was knocked to the floor. I never looked out the window after that so I don't know if the sniper moved or where they moved too" I tell her thinking back to last night.

"Is there anything else you can tell me that might be more useful" Minna asks.

"Now that I think about the gunshot didn't sound right, it sounded muffled and a lot quieter than a normal gunshot" I answer remembering the popping sound from last night. "Something didn't sound right about it"

"What do you mean it didn't sound right?" Sakamoto asks.

"It sounded more like a popping sound than a gunshot" I reply and Sakamoto seems to be thinking about something for a few moments.

"I believe that whoever shot you was using a suppresser so that means that whoever shot you were ever from the military or had some serious backing to be able to attain a suppresser since they have only just started to be approached" She says as she rubs her chin. "So it's safe to say that someone wants you dead"

"I afraid she's right" Minna adds. "Is there anything that you can remember that will make someone want to kill you?"

"Um no I…" I start to say as I try to think back only to get a head ach for my efforts. "I… I can't remember anything before I nearly drowned"

"Ok but I think you need to remain inside and away from…" Minna begins to say but a flash I the tree behind her grabs my attention and I don't need to think about my next move my reacts by itself. I dive across the table and tackle Minna to the ground seconds before a bullet shatters the window and hits the desk. If I hadn't have acted than that bullet would of went straight through Minna's head.

I don't even have to think about my next move as my hand grabs Minna's luger from under her desk and fires every bullet in the magazine automatically at the area where I saw the flash.

"Where did that shot come from?" Sakamoto asks as she unsheathes her katana.

"The tree outside, near the top" I answer as I get up and take cover beside the window while reloading.

"He's right there's someone out there in the tree" Minna confirms and when I look to her I can see her surrounded by silver light and a pair of wolf ears has grown on her head. "Major, go get everyone and surround the tree, John and I will make sure the shooter doesn't get away"

"Right" Sakamoto says before she runs out of the room leaving me and Minna alone against the sniper. Minna takes another luger from her desk and takes cover on the opposite side of the window from me. I try to take a look out the window to try and spot the sniper but before a can even see the tree a bullet hits the wall next to my head forcing me to abandon my spotting attempt.

"Stay in cover and I'll use my magic to keep an eye on the sniper" Minna orders and I nod in response. "Thanks for saving me back there"

"Don't mention it I'm sure you would have done the same for me" I reply as another bullet hit the wall near my head. "Is that sniper the only one out there?"

"One minute" Minna says and her silver glow brightens for a minute. "Yes I can't sense anyone else out there"

The minutes tick by as me and Minna wait in silence for Sakamoto and the others to arrive below the tree. Minna keeps using her magic to check for the sniper every few minutes and so far the sniper hasn't made any escape attempt, all the snipers been doing is taking pot shots at use keeping us pinned down.

"Minna we are in position" Sakamoto calls out from outside the window.

"Whoever you are you should give up now!" Minna shouts. "I promise you won't be hurt in any…"

Minna is unable to finish as the sniper jumps from the tree into her office. As soon as the sniper lands he uses his rifle as a club and strikes in the head Minna knocking her unconscious while at the same time kicking the luger out of my hand and out of the window. I quickly rush him knocking his rifle from his hands and across the floor before he grabs my arm and throws me across the room. I land hard on the floor and pain races from my shoulder like lightening to every corner of my body.

I get back to my feet and standoff with the sniper. I can tell it's a man from his figure but apart from that I can't tell any more about him. He's wearing a ghillie suit that hinds his identity from me and allowed him to disappear into the trees. As we stand there staring at each other across the room he draws two large knives from his waist before he charges me.

His first slash comes from above and I easily dodge it with a side step, his second move is to stab me with the other knife but I again dodge it with ease with a side step. I can't dodge his next attack as he follows up his stab with a round house kick which connects with the side of my head knocking me to the ground with my ears ringing. Before I can get to my feet he brings both the knives down to me and I only just manage to roll out of the way in time. As I get to my feet I launch my counter attack by landing an upper cut on him as I get to my feet sending him staggering back leaving his knives stuck into the ground.

I ignore the knives wanting to take him alive for questioning later and charge straight at him landing a right hook to his check causing him onto his knees. I throw another punch at him this time with my left fist aiming for his head but this time he catches my fist and knees me painfully in the stomach forcing the air from my lungs as he gets back to his feet. I fall to the ground holding my stomach gasping for air as he stands over me drawing another smaller knife from his belt.

"I see you haven't lost you touch Johnny boy" The man mocks as he pulls back the knife preparing to stab me and end my life. "But you never could beat me even on my bad days and now you're…"

He's unable to finish as a gunshot echoes through the room and bullet rips into the man's arm forcing him to drop the knife. I don't miss this opportunity to act and I kick him as hard as I can in the knee causing him to yell out in pain and fall to the ground. A take a quick look around the room to see who fired the shot and I find Minna sitting up with her back to the wall and blood covering half of her face pointing her luger at the man. "We have him" I thought as I turn back to face the man, but my relief is short lived as he swallows a tablet. Nearly instantly the man starts to bleed from his ears, nose, and eye's while a constant stream of blood pours from his mouth. Within seconds he's dead laying in a pool of his own blood.

"Minna are you ok?" Sakamoto asks as she badges into the room with Gertrud and Erica behind her with their weapons aimed ready to respond to any threat.

"Yeah we're both fine but the sniper killed himself as we were about to capture him" Minna replies as she wipes the blood from her eyes. "I'm going to need Yoshika's healing magic thought, what about you John"

"I'm fine I just got a few new bruises" I answer getting to my feet.

"Who was that person anyway he sounded like he knew you?" Minna asks me. I walk over to the man and uncover his face to find it a bloody mess.

"I don't know I can't remember his face and I was hoping to take him alive so I could ask him how he knew me" I tell her as I turn away from the bloody face feeling sick to my stomach.


	5. Chapter 5

2 Years Ago

"Incoming!" My squad leader shouts as a Neuroi beam falls to the ground just in front of our position.

"There artillery is tearing us apart!" A soldier in the fox hole to my left shouts out after the ground stoops shaking from the explosion.

"Just keep your heads down and you'll be fine!" The Squad leader shouts back as another Neuroi beam falls from the sky and destroys a Firefly tank just behind me.

"We need to…" The soldier started to shout but a Neuroi beam hit his fox hole killing him and two others instantly leaving no trace of their bodies behind.

"We've got Neuroi incoming!" Someone calls out and I turn round to see six large Neuroi shaped like scorpions slowly creeping towards her firing beams from their stingers.

"John what are you doing start firing now!" The Squad leader orders and I immediately obey grabbing my Sten gun and begin to fire at the closest Neuroi only to have my bullets bounce of its thick skin and by the looks of it everyone else is having the same result.

"Shit our weapons are useless" The soldier sharing my fox hole moans.

"We need air support…" I began to tell my squad leader only to find him dead, blown in half by a Neuroi beam. "We need that radio cover me while I get it!"

Everyone quickly obeys my orders and begins to lay down rapid fire onto the advancing Neuroi. As soon as I'm happy the supressing fire I take a deep breath cutting of my raising fear and run out into the open towards the radio. The run to the radio only takes a few seconds but it feels like an eternity and the whole wold seems to slow down around me. I can see every bullet and beam around me moving in slow motion.

When I finally reach the radio the worlds speed back up to its normal speed and I find the radios intact and still working, the first good news I've had all day. Now we have a chance of winning this battle, this radio is currently connected to the fleet and now I can bring some big guns to bear upon the Neuroi.

"This is Bravo two, requesting fire mission on hill three, danger close" I call into the radio.

"Copy that, confirm hill top three, danger close" The voice on the other end of the radio replies as a Neuroi beam destroys a Tiger tank.

"Hill top three danger close confirmed" I tell him just before another beam hits the ground next to me covering me in dirt.

"Firing now, twenty seconds to impacted" The voice says and I can hear the guns open fire in the distance.

It happens again time slows own for me and I watch two fox holes full of soldiers take a direct hit from the Neuroi beams killing everyone inside. Then I see the shell fired by the navy slowly fly through the air towards their targets. They hit their mark, all the Neuroi are destroyed and their fragments scattered into the wind. But before one of the Neuroi full disintegrate it fires one last beam that hits the ground just in front of me sending me flying backwards and destroying the radio.

* * *

Present Day

I wake up as soon as my body hit the ground, drenched in sweat and my heart feels like it's going to burst out of my chest. I look around the room checking for Neuroi. It takes me awhile to realize that I'm back in the hospital room and the sun is already up. The familiar surroundings help to calm me down and after a minute I've managed to calm myself down.

"Is something wrong sweetie" A voice says from under the covers. I look down and pull back the cover to discover Erica curled up next to me in nothing but her underwear.

"I'm fine and what are you doing in my bed?" I ask her as she sits up yawning.

"Because your chest makes a good pillow" Erica says with a smile as she runs her finger across my chest. "Also because I know someday we'll put this bed to good use"

"Hartmann what do you think you are doing?" Gertrud asks as she storms into the room and grabs Erica's arm. "I've been looking everywhere for you and I find you fooling around here now come on your late for training"

"Come on Trude don't be jealous because you're feeling left out" Erica teases as she hugs Gertrud. "I still have time for you too"

"That's not what I meant and I would be more than happy for John to take you off my hands, that way I won't have to wake you up every day" Gertrud says as she frees herself from Erica's hug. "No hurry up and get dressed and get to training!"

"Ok do you see my cloth anywhere? I can't remember where I put them" Erica says as she looks around the room.

"Here's you jacket" I say as I find her jacket beside the bed.

"Oh that reminds me Major Sakamoto say's you have to report for training too" Gertrud tells me as she leaves the room.


	6. Chapter 6

Ten minutes later Erica and I are dressed and joining the witches on the runway for training. The others are already there and are staring at us. Shirley and Lucchini giggle and give me knowing stares like they think something happened between me and Erica, Sakamoto just gives us a disappointed stare. Well training may not be off to the best of starts but at least the weathers nice. The sky is a deep blue with plenty of white fluffy clouds to give us some relief from the sun.

"You're both late" Sakamoto tell us as Erica and I line up with the other witches. "I'll let you off this time John as I forgot to tell you but Erica you are going to be running extra laps after everyone else has finished. Now then let's get started"

We start off with a light jog around the base with Sakamoto leading the group. She occasionally has to turn around to shout at Erica or Lucchini for being too slow. We have to keep up a constant pace set by the Major or we'll end up being shouted at. In the end we do ten laps of the base and when we finally do fish my legs feel like jelly and I struggle to catch my breath. Sakamoto gives us a five minute break before she sets us on a course of push ups, sit ups and pull ups. After half an hour of this my muscles are screaming in pain and I can't help but sigh in relief when Sakamoto tells us to stop.

"Alright everybody take a five minute break then grab your weapons and report to the firing range for target practice" Sakamoto tells everyone as she walks towards me. "John you will have a Sten gun waiting for you at the firing range" She tells me before she walks off towards the anger where Minna is waiting.

"How come… this… doesn't exhaust… you?" Lucchini asks me as she tries to catch her breath and for the first time I look around to see everyone but Gertrud and Shirley collapsed on the floor.

"I don't know I guess I'm just used to it but I can't remember where from" I answer her as I wipe a thin layer of sweat off my forehead.

Ten minutes later we are all at the firing range waiting for Sakamoto to return and start their next phase of training. Everyone is starting to get worried as when Sakamoto doesn't turn up because she is very punctual, when she says a time she keeps to it. Five more minutes tick by with still no sign of the Major.

"Major Sakamoto isn't normally this late" Perrine say as Sakamoto still doesn't appear.

"Well her and Minna are probable having a nice fun time in Minna's office and lost track of time" Erica calls out causing several of the witches to giggle and Perrine's face to redden.

"The Major wouldn't do something like that!" Perrine snaps back.

"Well Minna's over there so we can just ask her" Shirley says as she points out the commander walking towards them.

"Excuse me but has any of you seen Sakamoto?" Minna asks as she reaches the group.

"I thought she was with you" Gertrud replies as she takes a step forward towards Minna.

"No I haven't seen her since breakfast" Minna says with a confused look on her face.

"We saw you speaking with her by the hanger fifteen minutes ago" I say and Minna instantly looks at me with an even more confused look on her face. "That wasn't you was it?"

"No I've been in my office doing paper work since breakfast, I couldn't possible have been there" Minna answers as her confused look turns into a worried look.

"Then who was speaking to the Major?" Perrine asks looking and sounding just as worried as Minna.

"Everyone spread out and search the area it could be another person like that sniper" Minna instantly orders as she draws her luger. "Yoshika, Lynne and Perrine take off and get a bird eye view of the base, everyone else split up into three teams of two and search the base. John you with me"

"Yes ma'am" Everyone replies before moving to fulfil her orders.

I follow Minna into the hanger and once we're in the middle of the hanger and Yoshika's teams taken off Minna turns to me before she shoves her palms into my chest so hard that I nearly fall over.

"You better start talking because if one of your enemy's have hurt Mio I swear to god that you won't live long enough to regret it" Minna demands as she grabs the front of my shirt twisting it so tight that I struggle to breath. "Tell me what's going on because whatever they do to her I will do to you tenfold"

"I… I don't… know I swear" I reply gasping for breath as she tightens her grip around on my shirt making it even harder to breath. "Let's… let's just… look around for clues… maybe… maybe we can… find some… something to lead us to her"

"You better be telling the truth because if I find out you could remember and not telling me got Mio hurt than there will be no safe place on earth for you" Minna warns as she lets go of my shirt and I take my first unhindered breaths in what feels like an forever. "Where did you last see her?"

"She was stood in the entrance next to someone who looked just like you when I last saw her" I answer pointing to the spot where Sakamoto was last seen.

"Ok help me look for any sign of where they could have taken her" Minna says and we both walk other to the hanger's entrance. We both search around looking for any sign of the missing Major but all I can find is the spotless floor telling me nothing about what could have happened to her.

"Find anything?" I ask as I give the floor one last desperate sweep for any sign of Sakamoto.

"Yeah I've found exactly what I'm looking for" Minna answers but as I get up to see what she has found something hard hits me in the back of the head knocking me unconscious.

* * *

2 Years Ago

I hit the ground hard after that Neuroi beam hit the ground so close to me. The impact of my landing has knocked the air from my lungs leaving me breathless gasping for air on the ground. All around me soldiers cheer at the victory we've just won but I don't feel much like cheering, too many people died to repel the attack and most of our tanks and defences lay burning sending huge columns of black smoke high into the sky.

In fact the entire battlefield is ablaze and the smoke produced has turned day into night, that's when I realize that they weren't cheers I was hearing but screams. Everyone around me is ever dead or dying and I'm trapped by a ring of fire. The heat is unbearable and the smoke is starting to choke me. I can't see any way out of this as every direction is blocked by a wall of flames.

The only way I can think to get out of this is by taking my own life. A bullet o the head will be a lot quicker than slowly choking to death on the black noxious smoke or burning alive by the scorching flames. To be honest I'm too afraid of burning to death that I don't have a second though when I take out my sidearm and place it to my temple.

But something stops me, the roar of an engine fills the air blocking out the crackling sounds of the fire getting closer and closer. I instantly lower my gun and look around filled with hope that I'll somehow be saved. A black truck covered with steel plating bursts through the fire and stops meters in front of me.

"Hey this one's still alive!" Some shouts as the jump out of the armoured truck and run towards me.

* * *

Present Day

"Wake up!" A blurry figure shouts as they slap me across the face. "Come on I want you to witness this!"

"Witness what?" I grungy ask as I begin to regain consciousness. My head feels like someone has gotten inside ad is hitting hit with a hammer and my vision is blurred but slowly getting better.

"You'll see" The blurred figure asks, know that I'm more awake I can tell the voice belongs to a young woman.

As my vision starts to improve I suddenly recognize the blurred figure. It's Minna. I try move but find myself chained to the wall unable to move even a muscle. Why is Minna doing this? Is she making good on her promises to make me pay is something happened to the Major? Is Sakamoto alright?

"Why are you doing this Minna?" I ask still stunned at my captor's identity. "I haven't do anything to hurt you"

"You always were a dumb one John and never could see through any of my disguises" Minna answers before giving a menacing laugh. "Oh Johnny boy you have hurt me in so many ways but now you're finally going to pay" Minna tells me as she grabs the sides of her face and rips her face of.

This isn't' Minna. She was an imposter wearing a mask, a very good one at that. This woman has short black hair blue eyes and looked like she was from Fuso. This woman didn't even have Minna's gaze that was filled with compassion and understand instead her gaze is filled with hatred.

"Who are you? What have you done with Minna and Sakamoto?" I ask worrying more for the two witches than my own safety.

"You can relax they are both fine, nothing ever happened to them. Minna needed Sakamoto to sign a few documents and I played you and the others into my trap. I needed you isolated so I made up some fake story and when we were alone I struck" She tells me. "Oh John and I'm April since you clear forgotten me"

"Ok April why are you doing this to me?" I ask desperate to know why I'm being hunted.

"I'm doing this because you abandoned us John!" April screams as she slaps me for a second time. "You left us to die back…"

April isn't able to finish as Gertrud suddenly appears out of nowhere and tackles April to the ground. Erica, Minna, Sakamoto and Shirley enter the room right behind her and immediately the five witches subdue April. April doesn't even resist she just stays still on smiling at me. Gertrud quick walks over to me and uses her strength to break the chains holding me to the wall.

"Are you alright John?" Minna asks me.

"Yeah I'm fine just a…" Suddenly a giant explosion knocks me off my feet and cuts me off mid-sentence. I turn round to check on the others and see everyone's fine expect for April who lays here in a pool of her own blood. "Is everyone ok?"

"Yeah" Everyone around the room say.

"Shit we're trapped" Shirley curses and ii turn round to see what she is looking at. The door way is buried under stone and dirt trapping us inside.


	7. Chapter 7

The rumble blocking the entrance completely traps us inside making escape from this place impossible. This room, my prison has now become my tomb and the tomb of my rescuers probably just as April planed.

"Shit we're completely fucked" Shirley moans out loud as she examines the wall of dirt and stones blocking are exit. "I don't think we can get out of here by ourselves"

"Calm down I'm sure the others will come looking for us and dig us out" Minna tells Shirley as she puts her hand on her shoulder. "I know that they'll come for us when we don't return or contact them"

"She's right we all know that Miyafuji will get worried and won't stop looking for us until she knows we are all safe" Sakamoto adds with a smile of pride clearly for Yoshika.

We all wait in silence sitting on the floor shoulder to should against the very wall I was chained to moments before we all got trapped. We have been sitting here in silence for nearly an hour which felt like days, every attempt Minna and Shirley made to start a conversation ended in fail so we have just be sitting her in silence as darkness creeps into the room. But thankfully I feel tired and exhausted and sleep takes over to spare me from the unbearable silence in the room.

* * *

2 Years Ago

I wake up in a cold sweat wondering if I'm dead or alive. I must be dead as the last thing I can remember is being surrounded by fire and I can still taste and smell the chocking black smoke in my mouth.

"Looks like soldier boys awake now boss" I hear someone say and I quickly sit up to see who said it. A bit too quickly though as the moment I sit up a nauseating feeling takes over my body causing me to throw up on to the floor. "He seems to be redecorating now" The voice mocks and laughs as I hear more footsteps approach me.

"Good god son you could of held it in or used the window next to you" Another voice that sounds Liberion says in disgust. My first instinct is to look at the person who just spoke but this sickening feeling I have forces me to stick my head out of the window and throw up again. "That's right get it all out boy"

After a few moments I'm all out of sick and can finally think clearly enough to try and figure where I am. I'm in some ruined city judging from the destruction around me, the signs are in Gallian so I know I'm still in Gallia and I'm on the second floor of the building I'm in judging from the drop from the window. I stick my head back in to find myself in a barren room with only a bed inside and several pieces of broken plaster fallen from the ceiling. In the room with me are three black masked people wearing black suits to match and armed to the teeth with weapons from various countries.

"Feeling better now?" The first voice to speak asks in a slightly annoyed tone. I'm guessing from the sound that the voice belongs to the masked person on the right.

"Yeah" I reply while nodding. "Where am I?"

"You're in Paris son and I got some bad news I'm afraid" The second voice asks coming from the middle masked person. "We are all trapped in Gallia now those Neuroi bastards have captured all the ports and airfields across the country"

* * *

Present Day

I wake up to the sound of scrapping. The witches are still asleep but Sakamoto is starting to stir at the sound. Again I awake to find Erica asleep next to me with one of her hands gripping tightly to me shirt and her head resting on top of my heart. The sound of scrapping gets louder and Sakamoto wakes up immediately looking around for the source of the sound. Her eyes narrow on me when she spots how Erica and I are laying.

"I don't know how you could do that in this kind of situation John" Sakamoto says shaking her head and sounding like she's disappointed in me. "I really hope we don't have another mouth to free in nine months because we barely have enough supplies as it is"

"Wait… What? I never… nothing happened ok" I reply embarrassed that she'll even think that I'll do something like that when we're trapped down here. "I just woke up and found her here"

"Ok now isn't the time for a debate" Sakamoto says still looking at me like she's disappointed in me. "More importantly what is that sound?"

"I don't know but we'll find out soon because it sounds like it's getting closer" I answer as I notice the earth and stone blocking the entrance start to move. "I think it has something to do with this" I say pointing out the movement.

"Yeah but how…" Sakamoto began to say only to be interrupted by a shovel stabbing through the earth and the first bit of daylight I've seen in hours shine in through the newly created hole. It feels so good to see and feel the sun light after what felt like a life time trapped here I can't even describe how good it feels. The shovel continues to stab through the earth over and over again until it's big enough for a person to crawl through.

"Major are you alright?" Perrine says as she crawls in through the hole she just dug. "Is everyone else ok?"

"Don't worry we're all fine Perrine" Sakamoto calmly replies as Minna, Gertrud and Erica wakes up.

"Why does the first face I see in the outside room have to be yours Perrine?" Erica sleepily teases as she finally gets off me, which is a shame really as her warmth did bring me comfort in this dark tomb of a room. "It is more likely to keep us scared down here than make us want to leave"

"You can stay down here for all I care" Perrine replies clearly annoyed at Erica's last comment as she turns her back to us and crosses her arms over her chest.

"While as along as John stays too then I'll happily stay" Erica says as she warps her arms around me. "Plus someone I know won't keep bothering me to wake up"

"You can't stay down here Hartmann now we are leave" Gertrud quickly says as she grabs Erica and drags her out of the room through the newly dug hole.


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning everything seems to be back to normal, I awake to find Erica asleep on my bed, Gertrud comes in and yells at her before dragging her off, Yoshika makes breakfast and no one mentions anything about what happened yesterday. The only thing that makes this day different from any other day is that the rain outside is pouring down and flashes of lightening and roars of thunder appear every few seconds.

"John Minna wants to see you in her office right now and she looks like she's not in a good mood" Gertrud tells me as she enters the dining hall just as I was about to start eating.

"Good luck in there" Shirley says as I get up to leave.

"Thanks I think I'll need it" I reply. "Oh and don't eat my breakfast"

"Can't make any promises Yoshika's cooking is addictive you know" Shirley tells me waving a piece of meat around on her fork.

"Yeah I know that's why I asked" I say as I leave the room.

When I reach Minna's office I don't even need to knock as Sakamoto is waiting for me in the doorway and she also doesn't look happy. Inside Minna's office Minna is sat at her desk staring at me as I enter and like Gertrud said.

"Sit down John" Minna orders me while nodding to the seat opposite her and Sakamoto closes the door. Just listening to her voice tells me that I'm in a lot of trouble. "You really need to start talking as both me, Mio, Barkhorn and Erica nearly died yesterday because of you"

"I swear I still don't know why this is happening all I know is that I once knew the people that attacked me and that I abandoned them according to what April told me" I answer as honestly as I can.

"Who's April?" Sakamoto asks as she walks round to stand by Minna's side.

"She was the woman than kidnaped me and buried us yesterday" I tell them. "She told me I left them to die"

"Did she say anything else?" Minna asks sounding a bit more calm but still angry at me.

"No you came in at that point" I reply remembering the event.

"Ok then, is there anything else?" Minna asks with a sigh and is probably think about how much more we would know if she waited a few more seconds before entering.

"Well I have had some dreams about fighting the Neuroi and everyone else dying around me as they are engulfed in flames" I admit knowing there is no point in hiding my recent dreams from these two. "But I can't link any of it to these attacks"

"Ok I want to know all about these dreams" Minna orders as she leans slightly towards me over her desk. I spend about ten minutes telling them about my dreams exactly how I remember them and answer all their questions. "That sounds like the Battle of Dunkirk and the last place you were seen before we found you"

"Do you think these masked people are the same people who attacked you?" Sakamoto asks.

"I don't know, I never saw their faces" I answer.

"Ok then your free to go now but I want you to report to me every time you have one of these dreams" Minna says and as I leave she adds. "John if you get any of my girls killed or hurt then you'll regret it"

"I understand and promise not to hurt them in any way or allow them to be hurt" I say as I leave.

While that was harder than I thought. I never thought that I'll ever be integrated about my dreams before or threatened. I really hope no one's my breakfast as Yoshika's cooking I just the thing I need after going through that and one that thought and the rumbling of my stomach I practically run to the dining hall hoping to find my breakfast in the same uneaten state I left it in.

Once I arrive there I find it empty except for Gertrud everyone's already gone. My breakfast looks like no one's ate it and is in the same place I left it the first good thing to happen to me today.

"Don't worry no one touched it" Gertrud tells me as I sit back down in front of my plate and cheek it for bite marks. "Even though both Shirley and Lucchini tried"

"I suppose I have you to thank for stopping them" I reply as I look over to her and just for a second it almost looked like she smiled.

"Yes you do actually" Gertrud tell me. "I guess you owe me one know"

"Yeah I guess I do because eating Yoshika's cooking is the best part of my day" I agree with her before taking my first bite of paradise. "This food is worth any price"

"Good because I need some help later" Gertrud says as she gets up after finishing her breakfast. "Meet me in the hanger after training"

"Ok see you there" I reply and for the second time I see a smile appear on her face, only for a second but it was clearly there. After that I get straight to eating my breakfast.

My luck must be improving as just before training starts the storm that has been drowning the base suddenly stops and the sun starts to peek its way through the clouds, my seconded piece of luck comes when Sakamoto announced that are training will only consist of target practice and my final piece of luck comes in the form of an excellent round of accurate shooting bringing prise and complements from everyone around me. After training true to my word I head to the hanger where I find Gertrud already waiting for me next to a jeep.

"I hope we are going somewhere nice" I say approaching her.

"It depends on what you mean by nice" Gertrud replies as she turns round to face me. "I have to go into town and pick up a few things and you're going to help me carry them"

"I hope it's nothing to heavy" I say as I get into the passenger seat of the jeep and Gertrud climbs into the driver's seat.

"You'll find out soon enough" Gertrud tells me as we set off.


	9. Chapter 9

After an hour of driving along winding dirt country roads we finally reach the town. The ride wasn't that bad as Gertrud had an interest in my dream about the Battle of Dunkirk so we past the time talking about that and she brought me up to speed on everything I missed since then including all the battles she fought in. For a girl she has an unusually big interest in warfare and weaponry.

The town is a small and surrounded by thick woods on all sides but the locals seem friendly enough and wave at us as we drive past them. All the buildings are two floored stone brick buildings packed tight together. In the centre of town is a giant church whose tower towers over the town and in front of the church there appears to be a market going on today.

"So what's our first stop?" I ask as Gertrud parks he car in the centre of town.

"I need to get Erica an alarm clock so that store there" She answers as she points to a clock store just down the street. "After that it's just cooking supplies and I need a new pillow after Erica ripped mine in half this morning after I dragged her away from you"

"While then let's get a move on before the rain starts again" I say as I lead the way towards the shop.

"While do want to get anything while we are here?" Gertrud asks me as she catches up to me.

"No I've got everything I need back at the base" I reply as we enter the shop. "While I could use my memories back but I don't think I can by them here"

"While you never know what you'll find" Gertrud tells me and just for a second it looked like she was about to laugh. What is it with this girl? Every time she smiles and laughs she seems to hide it like her life depends on it. "Anyway this alarm clock should do" She says picking up a red alarm clock from the shelf.

After that we walked through the market buying bags of rice, baskets of fruit and vegetables, potatoes and various meat products. We even found a pillow for Gertrud while walking through the market; it's a plain white one filled with feathers. At least the weathers held out and not drenched us in rain yet. Now we are just sitting at a café having a cup of tea before heading back to the base.

"So why did Erica ripe your pillow?" I ask here as I finish my tea. I've been wondering this ever since she told me.

"Because she tried to go back to sleep in my bed after we left you" Gertrud tells me. "Erica had a tight grip on my pillow and ripped it when I pulled her off my bed. I guess it got caught on my bed or something"

"While that sound more like bad luck than Erica's fault" I say.

"While it would never have happened if she wasn't so lazy" She tells me before finishing off the last of her tea. "She may be a good soldier but that doesn't mean she can be lazy and sleep all the time"

"Yeah but…" I start to say but Gertrud stops me by shoving me to the ground just before a storm of bullets fly over my head. I look around for the source of the shooting and find it in a shops window reflection. Two men are shooting at us from across the street with Thomson sub machineguns. "There are two of them across the street" I tell Gertrud who nods back.

"Stay low and follow me" Gertrud says before crawling away on her stomach. I follow her staying as low as possible as I crawl over the dead and wounded that went lucky enough to have dodge the incoming bullets. By the time we finally crawl into an alleyway that shields both of us from the incoming fire both of us are covered in blood. "Those bastards just gunned down a group of civilians"

"I know but it's me they are after so just stay here and I'll lead the away" I tell her as I stand up and prepare myself to run but before I can leave her Gertrud grabs my wrist in a death grip.

"Do you really think I'll just sit by and let you do this by yourself after what they just did?" She asks me as she stands up. "I going with you and teaching those sons of bitches a lesson"

"Alright but we still need to lure them away from the civilians" I reply as I look around and try to come up with a plan while bullets hit the wall all around us. "We'll draw them into the forest and set up an ambush"

"Do you have a gun I left mine at the base?" Gertrud asks me.

"No so it looks like we'll have to fight up close and personal" I answer.

"Great, let's get going before more locals get caught up in this" Gertrud moans as she starts to run towards the woods and I follow just behind her.

We run through the alleyway as fast as we can and thankfully make it to the other end before the gunmen can fire at us. By the time they do get a chance to fire on us we've already reached the other end of the ally and turned the corner. Now nothing stands between us and the forest. We run deep into the forest until the trees get so close together that our progress is slowed down to a crawl, branches constantly block our path and cut into our skin as they fling back at me. As I continue to move forward the sound of the gunmen pursuers echo through the trees, a crack of a branch breaking, a crunch of a leaf being stepped on and the occasional curse shouted from the gunmen as they get cut just like I did. Thankfully they don't shoot because of the thickness of the forest making it impossible from them to raise their guns.

"Hide, this is the perfect place to take them" I whisper as I pull Gertrud into a ditch with me. "Ready?"

"Yes, I got the one on the left, you take the right" Gertrud replies as she takes up a stance that resembles a cat about to pounce. "Attack on my mark"

"Yes ma'am" I say while taking up a similar stance. Within seconds both of the masked gunmen appear through the trees with their weapons pointing at the ground.

"Lets get them" Gertrud yells as she activates her familiar and charges her target.

I hesitate only for a second as I watch a pair of dog ears grow on her head and a tail shoot out of her lower back before I attack my target, luckily he seems just as amazed as I was when Gertrud's familiar appeared so I catch him completely by surprise and mange to land a right hook to the side of his face sending him to his knees. My next move is to wrestle his Thomson off of him by garbing his gun and chucking it off to my side before kicking his pistol out of his hand as he tries to draw it. I'm going to take him alive and finally get some answers.

The masked man distances himself from me by rolling backwards before getting to his feet and taking up a boxers stance and charges towards me. His first punch comes from his left and I easily dodge it with a side step, he follows it up with a jab from his right witch I duck to avoid and swipe his legs causing him to fall to the ground. He recovers quickly and is back on his feet in less than a second throwing more punches that I dodge with a mixture of ducking and weaving, finally I get an opening as he slips on a branch and don't miss it. I step forward and punch him with all my strength straight an his noise and judging by the crunching sound that follows I'm guessing his noise just broke, he goes down instantly and lays there.

"Nicely done, you may not be as bad as I thought" Gertrud says as she walks up behind me. "Of course mine was done after the first blow but what you did is still impressive"

"Thanks but now I we need to leave and take this one back to base so I can finally get some answers" I reply as I pick up the unconscious man. "Is yours alive because I wouldn't mind having someone else to talk to?"

"No my first punch broke his skull open and his brain poured out" Gertrud answers making me gag a little as disturbing images fill my mind.

"Thanks for the images" I say as I try to hold in my breakfast.

"Lookout!" Gertrud yells as she pushes me to the ground forcing me to drop the gunman. A bright red beam rips through the trees and strikes the ground where I was just standing causing a small fire to start to burn. A few seconds later another beam rips through the trees hitting the unconscious gunman in the head and setting his body on fire. "That's a Neuroi beam!"

"Where did it come from?" I ask as I scan the sky but fail to see anything through the thick foliage.

"I don't know but we need to get back to base and report this" Gertrud says.


	10. Chapter 10

Gertrud and I are pulled into Minna's office as soon as we arrive at the base not looking happy at me. She stares a me as I take my seat while crushing a pencil in her hand, Sakamoto on looks just as pissed keeping her hands wrapped tightly around her sword. Great the two most powerful people on the base now hate me.

"I warned you hat would happen if you involved any of the witches in your problems and now" Minna angrily says as the pencil in her hand breaks in to two pieces. "you nearly got Trude killed"

"It wasn't his fault we..." Gertrud try's to say but Sakamoto cuts her off.

"Barkhorn be quiet, it's John's fault you were put in such a dangerous position in the first place" Sakamoto says before turning to me and giving me a hateful stare. "You've brought nothing but danger and trouble to the witches since you arrived here putting us all in danger and nearly killing everyone in this room"

"But we decided to go rescue him" Gertrud counters. "It wasn't his fault we were trapped"

"I told you to be quiet Barkhorn and John will defend himself" Sakamoto tells her without breaking eye contact with me. "Now explain yourself"

"Well as we were getting ready to return two masked man attacked us, we lead them into the woods killing one of them and capturing another before a Neuroi beam stuck from out of no where killing the man we captured" I reply worrying that she'll draw her sword and take my head.

"Did you say a Neuroi beam?" Minna asks as curiosity takes over from anger.

"Yes a beam came down from the sky" I answer. We couldn't see where it came from though or the Neuroi that shot it"

"We didn't receive any reports of Neuroi activate" Minna says looking and sounding like she doesn't believe me. "Trude is that true?"

"Yes everything he just said is true I saw it with my own eyes" Gertrud replies causing Minna and Sakamoto to quietly whisper a few words to each other.

"You are both dismissed for now and John you will be confined to the medical ward until further notice" Minna says after the whispering drags on.

"Yes ma'am" I say as I get up an leave heading straight for my bed.

* * *

2 Years Ago

It has been two days since I woke up in Pairs and already this city is feeling like home. I've learned how to navigate through the sewers and catacombs below the city street although I prefer to avoid the catacombs as the skulls and bones sticking out of the walls freak me out. All together there are over two hundred civilians protected by myself and forty other soldiers who were left behind living under the surface of Pairs. We are spread out into four groups for safety but stay in contact with each other making a radio check every six hours. Our supplies are plentiful with an abundance of food and water we scavenged from the city above, ammo and weapons from abandoned military bases and medical supplies from the local hospitals keep us supplied and in no danger of running low on anything any time soon.

The daily routine is simple and even though I've only just arrived I have memorized my job of by heart well other new comers and even people who's been here longer then I have still need to read nots on what they are meant to do. My job is to protect a small boy called Sabin who is only eight as he checks and maintains the phone lines between Camps 1 and 4. It's a simple job and usually only takes and hour because of Sabin's skilful knowledge of wiring, his family use to sell and repair radios before they were killed leaving Sabin alone in this horrible destructive world and I can't help but feel sorry for him every time I see.

"Hey Sabin how do you feel like playing a game of cards later?" I ask as we approach the halfway point of our trip. "I found a complete deck yesterday when I was on patrol"

"Oui that will be génial" Sabin replies with a big happy smile on his face, I may not know any Gallian but Sabin knows enough Britannian for us to communicate. "Can we jouer blackjack"

"Sure we can" I say returning his smile. "Now lets get finished up so I can start beating you"

"Aucun you won't battre moi" Sabin says with playful punch to my arm right before a giant explosion plunges us into darkness and something strikes me on the head knocking me unconscious.

* * *

Present day

I wake up to the sound of knocking on the door to the medical ward, it's gently and doesn't sound threatening but after everything that's happened to me lately I am not taking any chances and make sure my pistols loaded and in my hand with the safety off before I go and answer the door. I walk slowly towards the door making sure I don't step on any of the creaky floor boards. I open the door making sure that the doors between me and he person knocking before pecking round and finding Gertrud stood there acting nervously which from what I've seen of her is out of place. She was wearing her military uniform sill and judging by the time she should be in bed as it' nearly one o'clock in the morning.

"Hey John I came by... came by to tell you that despite what Minna says I will be there for you and ready to back you up any time you need it" Gertrud says nervously while her hands fiddle with the front of her uniform.

"Is something wrong you don't norm..." I begin to ask but get cut off when Gertrude suddenly kisses me. The kiss only lasts for a second but it felt like heaven having her warm soft lips pressed against mine. From what I know about her she is a tough dedicated soldier not someone who goes round kissing people in the middle of the night but here we are.

"Please call me Trude" She says going red in the face before running off with a clearly visible smile on her face. Great first Erica now Trude I have to worry about trying to sneak into my bed.


	11. Chapter 11

My lips are still tingling when I wake up and the taste of her lips still lingers on mine. Her kiss last night caught me completely off guard, it was so sudden, so unexpected that I almost can't believe it really happened, no it did, it did happen. She kissed me, Gertrud no Trude kissed me last night. I didn't even know see liked me that way or that she could feel love, from what I've seen and come to know of her is that she was a tough, strong, dedicated soldier who believe's that emotions are a sign of weakness.

I keep replaying the events of last night over and over in my head trying to come up with a plan. What do I say to her? What will she say to me? I really don't have any idea what I will do. I can't stay in my bed forever and I will have to face her sooner or later but I just can't bring myself to leave my bed and walk out of the room and into the base where I'm in no doubt that I'll have to face Trude.

"What do I do?" I ask out loud.

After about half an hour of thinking that question over and over in my head I do eventually leave, not because I answered it because believe me I still don't have a clue but because the growls and rumbles in my stomach are becoming painful. I walk through the corridors of the base still thinking over what I will do hoping that I won't run into Trude as I really don't know what I'll say to her.

I walk into the dinning hall to a sight of horror. Everyone of the witches are sat down at the table, unconscious and their hand chained to their chairs with thick heavy chains. At the center of the table is a large metal box with a large clown doll sat on top. Not knowing what to do I take a few steps closer to the table only to have the door behind me slam shut and loudly lock itself.

"Ha Ha Ha you walked right into my trap Johnny boy" A creepy voice says coming from the clown doll. "I remember you being a lot smarter kid"

"Who are you?" I shout at the doll. "Show yourself instead of hiding behind this doll like a coward!"

"Ha I remember you very well so that won't happen kid" The doll laughs. "If you really don't remember me then you will after this" The lid of the metal bx suddenly shoots open sending the doll flying across the room. Inside the box is a large bomb with too many sticks of dynamite to count and a large alarm clock. Beside the bob is a steel box with three key holes and an envelop placed on top of it. "Read the letter to begin the game, refuse or lose and your little lady friends will pay the price. Good luck Johnny boy"

With that the doll explodes into several burning pieces quickly turning to ash. I go straight to the box despite to get this game over with and save the girls. The envelop is small and as I pick it up I can feel a small hard card inside, unfortunately in my rush to start the game I trigger the bomb starting a loud ticking sound.

_Ready or not its time for the first task Johnny boy_

_to get the first key __head to the hanger and wait_

_and see_

Not seeing any other option I obey the instruction instructions and run into the hanger. The hanger looks completely normal with everything in its place. The Strikers are lined up against the back wall and all of the tools are still in their place.

"Where are you you bastard?" I shout out into the wide open space. "Come on out here!"

"I will in time kid now you better shut up and play along with my game before someone gets hurt" The creepy voice says sounding scarier and angrier with each word that leaves his mouth. "Now then back on topic, your first task is to reach the key above you" I look up and see the key dangling from one of the steel beams supporting the ceiling high above my head. "You have five minutes to get the key and make it back to the bomb before it goes off"

The sound of a ticking clock replaces his voice as I begin to look around the room frantically seeking a way up to the key. All I have to work with are a couple of hammers, the Striker Unit's and a one of Lucchini's blankets lied out on on of the beams. That's it, If Lucchini can get up there to place that blanket then there must be a way to climb up there and get the key, now I just need to find it. Looking around the hanger I can see only one possible way up there, a steel support beam holding up the roof. The beam is tall but has large rivets shot into it that I can use as hand and foot holes.

It took me probable a minute to climb and I'm left out of breath from the climb, I do see how Lucchini can do this on a daily basis. The climb is hard and leaves me aching all over, I barely have enough time to catch my breath before I remember I'm on a time limit here. So still out of breath I begin to crawl along the beam trying not to look down at the ground so far below. Great this is the perfect time to remember I have a fear of heights or develop one, I really don't have time to think about weather I had this fear before or not.

When I get above the key I can barely force myself to look down at the key. The floor looks so far below me and I can't stop think about fallen down there and splattering against the the hard concert floor below. In the end I'm forced to reach down making blind grabs for the key as I find myself unable t look down. Luckily ever through blind luck or good guessing I manage to grab the key quickly, unluckily I trip a trap and and small explosive charges at ever end of the beam explodes send the beam and me still on top of it crashing to the ground.

"Ha you really don't remember me otherwise you wouldn't have fallen for that kid" The creepy voice says as I fall to the ground.


	12. Chapter 12

I hit the ground hard. The force of the impact takes the breath out of my lungs and leaves me gasping for breath with an agonizing pain coming from my back. The whole world seems to be spinning and I'm seeing double. Slowly my mind recovers and I start to remember where I am and how I ended up on the ground in the first place.

"That was a dirty trick!" I yell as I slowly get to my feet with my joints feeling like their on fire.

"Oh Johnny boy if you only could remember me then you'll know I've never played fair" The creepy voice says with a eerie laugh. "Now you better hurry up and get that key in place because in two minutes boom!"

I don't even waste time to reply and head as fast as I can towards the dining hall where the witches and that box is. Unfortunately because of that fall and the resulting pains in my joints means my fastest a slow crawl through the corridor, I only can manage even this slow pace by leaning on the cold stone wall for support. I can barely move and each step I take is pure agony but some how I manage to crawl back to the dining hall and up to the table. Leaning over the table looking down on the box I see three key holes. They all look the same so ever every key fits into every slot or it will be trial and error until I find the right hole for the key. Ever I get lucky or guess right the first time as I put the key into the left key hole and find it fits first and are rewarded by the sound of gears moving around inside the box.

"Good work Johnny you won the first game now onto the second" The Creepy voice says. "But first you deserve a reward" There's a sudden loud clink and I turn to find Yoshika lying on the floor unchained and just waking up by the looks of it. "Once you healed your wounds head to Minna's office for the next game and bring that little girl with you"

"John who is that" Yoshika says as she gets to her feet but as soon as she see's the state I'm in her eye's widen and she soon forgets about her question. "John are you OK what happened to you?"

"I'm fine but I could use your healing magic right now" I tell er trying not to show how much pain I'm really in. Oh and I fell off one of the support beams in the hanger"

"OK stay still and I'll have you healed in no time" Yoshika tells me with a smile as she begins to heal my wounds. "What were you doing up there in the first place"

"Getting a key, after your done we need to head to Mina's office to get another key" I answer.

"Shouldn't we get the other free first" Yoshika asks as she finishes her spell and looks around at the rest of the 501st.

"That''s why we need to go to Minna's office the only way to free them is to get two more keys" I reply as I stretch my joints finding that all my pain's are gone. "Come on the sooner we get to Minna's office the sooner we can free them"

* * *

As soon as we enter Minna's office the door slams shut behind us and locks it self. Nothing here seems out of place, I've been in Mina's office several times in the past and right now the room looks no different now then it did any of the other times I've been here.

"Johnny are you read to begin?" The creepy voice asks as it fills the office. "This game is simple find the door key and get out of the room, you have five minutes again to get back and I don't need to remind you about what will happen if you don't get there in time"

"What's he on about John?" Yoshika asks as she grabs my arm. "What is he going to do"

"Oh I forgot you only just started playing our little game" The voice says. "If you don't make it back before the times up than... BOMB! No more witches. No let the game begin"

"Why would..." Yoshika begins to ask as a loud ticking sound fills the room but I cut her off by putting my hand over her mouth knowing that arguing with this man will be a waste of time.

"It's no use lets just find that key" I say as I uncover her mouth. "I'll check the left you should check the right"

Within minutes we've turned the whole room upside-down and made a complete mess of the room as we throw objects randomly at he ground but we have still failed to locate the key. By this time Minna's office is a mess with all her books and paper work littering the floor, her desk has been over turned and I've moved her bookshelf away from the wall but still we can't find the key anywhere. Yoshika isn't really helping as she want's to constantly stop searching for the key and to clean up this mess, I'm starting to get tired of telling her to stop cleaning and start looking.

"Two minutes until the big bomb guys you better hurry up" The creepy voice taunts.

"Where is it?" I ask out loud.

"It can't be here we've searched every inch of this room" Yoshika answers sparking a sudden thought in my brain.

"No we haven't" I tell her looking up at the ceiling and noticing for the first time that some of the wooden planks above my head are lose. "Get on my shoulders we haven't check the ceiling yet"

Yoshika doesn't hesitate and climbs on my shoulders as soon as I bend down to make it easier to climb on, Yoshika doesn't weigh much and I can probably hold her up all day if I had to but with the time limit ticking away I doubt it will come to that. We move around the room stopping to check any wooden planks that Yoshika feels are lose and finally after checking four or five planks Yoshika finds the key and a wave of relief washes over me.

"Good work now you better hurry only sixty seconds left" The voice says as Yoshika jumps down of my shoulders.

"Give me the key I can get back faster" I tell her as soon as her feet hit the ground.


	13. Chapter 13

We or should I say myself I only just make it back to the dining hall and turn the key in time with only seconds to spare, Yoshika runs into the room a few seconds after the bomb would of gone off with a look of concern and worry which vanishes as soon as she looks around and finds everyone still alive. We wait for our next instructions but after a minute of silence I'm worried that he's running down the clock so we'll have a less time to complete our next task.

"Hurry up and begin the next game you bastard!" I shout out getting sick of waiting.

"John I don't think you should anger him" Yoshika quietly whispers to me.

"I'm all ready here" The creepy voice says making both Yoshika and myself jump as we realize he's right behind us.

I turn round to see a old man standing in the door way behind me, he's wearing a black hooded robe that completely covers him from head to toe, a strange black mist seems to be coming off of the robe making it impossible to feel to see he wall and door behind him. His face is very pale like he's never set foot in the sun once in his life covered in wrinkles and his eyes are the darkest red I've ever seen in my life. He's leaning on some kind of weird cane that has two shiny jewels, a red one on top with a green one below it. I don't like the feeling I get of this man, he's stare alone is enough to make me feel unnerved and judging by the tightness in Yoshika's grip on my arm his stares having the same effect on Yoshika.

"It's been along time Johnny boy" The man say's. "I believe it's been two years since we last met, well you can't remember me but I sure do remember you" The old man says as he lifts his cane in front of him and the red crystal begin's to glow so brightly that the light it emits blinds me. "Yes right before you put a bullet in my back and abandoned everyone to the mercy of the Neuroi" The man tells me as he sends a beam just like the ones the Neuroi fires at me. It's coming so fast that I hardly have time to react but luckily Yoshika is here and she puts up a massive shield in front of both of us blocking the beam. But the beam is strong and sends Yoshika flying back into me and then both of us through the window landing hard on the ground knocking the air out of my lungs. "Now I'm going to pay you back for that Johnny" I look to see the old man know sanding in the window Yoshika and I just crashed through, the darkness around his body only seems to be getting darker and spreading wider by the second, Yoshika's lead on top of me unconscious and breathing heavily. Something doesn't seem right about her condition, her breathing is too heavy and she's covered in a thin layer of sweat. I look back up at the man seeking an answer to what's wrong with her but as soon as I look up I see him send another beam our way and for some reason everything slows down, I somehow mange to stand up with Yoshika in my arms and move out of the way of the beam. Almost as soon as I'm out of the way time speeds back up and I watch the beam hit a tree shattering its trunk and setting the tree and surrounding trees on fire. "I'm going to enjoy killing you johnny boy"

"What did you do to her?" I ask as I carefully place Yoshika down onto the ground.

"Oh just a little curse that I created myself to deal with those disgusting little witches" He answers as he steeps through the window. "It's a curse that will poison who eve blocks my attack and not even healing magic can stop her from dying" He says with a deep loud laugh. "Only killing me will break the curse and just so you know I also have the final key round my neck and there's no time limit for our final game"

"Fine then" I say as I steep away from Yoshika and take up a fighting stance. "I'll take you on"

"Good so summon your familiar and lets get started" He says as a large smile appears on his face. "It will be an unfair fight if I don't let you summon it"

"What are you on about?" I ask him feeling like I missed heard him. "I don't have a familiar and I can't use magic"

"Denial it all you want kid" He says as he sends a beam my way but I mange to serve out of the way in time. "But I know your a Warlock etherise how did you mange to dodge my attack a few minute's ago. You looked like you were moving very fast to me, too fast for an ordinary human"

He's right I did move faster then his beam just now but I don' know whether that's because of magic or adrenalin, I don't have time to think it through as he send a beam my way which I only just manage to duck under with millimetres to spare losing a few strands of hair in the process. I have to come up with a plan and right now the only thing I can think of doing is rushing him after his next attack, there's a ten second delay between each of his attacks. Now I'll only have to hope that he's not deliberately delaying his attacks to catch me off guard when I do attack.

By the time his next beam comes my way I'm ready ad easily side step out of the beams path and run as fast as I can towards him. I reach him just as he's about to fire again and swing my fist round going for an upper cut only to have him vanish as son as my fist makes contact with his chin. The next ting I know is a beam heading my way from behind and I dive to the floor just before the beam fly's over my head.

"Nice try Johnny but that won't work on me" He says sending another beam towards me, this one explodes on the ground just in front of me as I get up sending me flying backwards. A piece of the ground must of hit me as my I can feel a trail of blood drip down out of my noise. "No get up It will be a shame to have to kill you while you crawl around on the ground"

I have to do something and fast. He's going to fight me at a distance with those beam attacks of his and even if I do manage to get close to him and strike he'll only use what ever disappearing trick he just used again. I believe my best bet is to get one of the weapons from the armoury, its a two hundred meter dash from where I currently am and the old man is between me and the hanger, I'll have to make my move after he's fired again but this time I'll run past him not at him. I don't have to wait long for his next attack because as soon as I form this plan in my head a red beam is heading straight for me.

I evade the beam with ease and run straight for the now burning trees surrounding the base hoping for cover against this man's attack, seconds later the cover of the burning tree's pay off as a Neuroi beam hits a tree nearly with the force of it's explosion knocking me over. I can't believe it I've managed to run past him unarmed and make it round the corner placing a building between me and the old man, I think I might actually stand a chance of beating him and saving Yoshika.

"You can run but you can't hide Johnny boy!" The old man shouts over the building. "I will catch up to and kill you!"

I reach the hanger jumping over the fallen steel beam and head straight for the weapon's rack picking up Shirley's BAR and as much ammo as I can carry, as soon as I turn round to face the entrance the fallen steel beam explodes in the middle clearing the way for the old man who came's walking slowly towards me. Before the dust can settle I fire an entire magazine into the old man's chest only to have him teleport away at the last second again, this time he appears above me on one of the steel beams and sends a beam directly down at me. I only just manage to dive out of the way but I do get winded as a small chunk of concert hits me just under the ribs. I quickly reload and fire a five round bust towards him only to have him teleport again but this time when he reappears a bullet strikes him in the chest just below the heart. two more shots quickly follow, both hitting him in the heart and he drops to the ground probably already died before he hits it. I turn round to find Gertrud no Trude standing in the hanger door aiming a Luger pistol in front of her.

"John are you ok?" She asks as she walks up to me.

"Yeah I'm fine just a few cuts and bruises" I answer with a reassuring smile. "Nothing to major but..."

"But what?"

"Yoshika has been hit with a curse and he said killing him will end it but I don't know if that's true or not" I say with my head down and gaze on the floor, I bend down and take the key from around his neck. "Can you take this key and free the others well I go check on her?"

"Sure" She replies with a nod as she takes the key from my hand and after I explained how to free the other's we run off in our separate ways.


	14. Chapter 14

I run as fast as I can to where I left Yoshika, she's still unconscious and laying on the ground but thankfully her breathing has become normal again. Relief and hope hat she'll survive and that I've saved her floods me and for the first time in a well I feel glad and proud of my actions, I saved not only Yoshika but all of the witches. I saved them, well Trude technically did by shooting him in the back but the most important thing i that everyone is safe and apart from me and Yoshika everyone else is unarmed. I bend down and pick Yoshika up, she needs to see a doctor just to be sure she's ok. I carry her into the building and in-between Minna and Sakamoto who are in no doubt on their way to speak to me, both of them stop though and let me pass when hey see Yoshika in my arms.

* * *

2 Years Ago

I wake up and find myself lying on the ground covered in dust and chips of concert that broke off of the ceiling above me, pain shoots through me as I get to my feet most strongly in my back. I look around the room keeping my teeth clenched to deal with the pain looking for Sabin who's nowhere to be seen. I look in every possible place I can think of and some impossible places like a tiny hole in the wall clearly to small or someone to fit through. Worry it clouds your mind and makes it so that you can't think straight, I know that Sabin can't fit in that hole but I'm filled with worry and can't think straight.

"Sabin! Sabin are you in there?" I shout into the hole but get only silence in return. "Sabin answer me!"

Nothing just a cold silence answers my call, thankfully I got enough control to realize my mistake and that Sabin couldn't fit in there and move on. I wasted time and energy checking that hole but I guess worry can make you do stupid things. I walk on further into tunnel calling out Sabin's name as I go and looking for any sign that he's alive and well. Finally I spot something, a light at the end of the tunnel and I feel a breeze gently brushes my body sending a chill down my spin that causes me to shiver.

I run into the light and find a scene of destruction, camp 4 is in ruins. Every building is a pile of rubble on fire filling the air with chocking, thick black smoke and there are bodies everywhere some also on fire and others just simply blown to pieces. Sabin is somewhere here he has to be as there are no sign's of him in the tunnel so he has to be here, he has to be.

* * *

Present Day

Minna, Sakamoto and Trude enter the medical ward not long after I handed Yoshika over to the doctors and explained to them what happened to her, Trude looks concerned while as Minna and Sakamoto looks angry but I can hardly blame them because I guess I'll be mad at the person who hurt a friend of mine. Everyone in the 501st and on this base loved Yoshika and seeing her hurt must anger and worry everyone here so its safe to say that I'm in for an earful.

"What happened this time John?" Minna asks and the anger is hard to miss in her voice.

"A Warlock attacked me a put a curse on Yoshika but I think I managed to lift the curse" I tell them, I was going to say more but Minna stops me with a hard slap across the face. Her palm print is left on my check and stings like hell. I've been slapped before by a woman but never this hard or powerful, ever so hard that their palm leaves a red hand print behind.

"Erica's getting an reward tomorrow and after that I'm going to fill paper and have you transferred out of my squad" Minna says as she looks over to Yoshika.

"Minna you..." Gertrud began to complain but one stare from Minna was enough to cut her off and make her look down at the ground.

"I warned you about what would happen if you engendered us and now you nearly got us all killed" Minna says turning back to me. "You should pack your things as I believe that you'll be leaving us in two or three days time"

* * *

2 Hours Later

Gertrud Barkhorn "Trude" P.O.V

I'm lead on my bed looking up at the ceiling thinking, what will happen to John if those men attack him again? He only survived the last fight because I saved him. If he leave's then I can't protect him, I can't be there to aid him in battle and I won't be able to be with him. I never thought I would fall in live with someone this soon, I always thought I would go home victorious to Chris and move back to Karlsland, meet someone back home and fall in love with them. Now that won't happen as I've fallen head over heels for John and now he's being taken away from me probably forever.

"What am I going to do without you?" I quietly says to herself as the though of never seeing John again circles around in my mind.

"Who are you going to do without Trude?" A equally quiet voice asks but one that does not belong to me. I roll over to face the source of the voice and find Shirley stood beside my bed so close that I can smell the salmon we had for dinner on her breath. "Sounds to me like you miss you sister or are going to miss John when he goes tomorrow"

"No its not like that" I quickly tell her as I sit up. "I was just worried that those people might attack John again when he leaves"

"Oh so you don't just worry about your sister so that means" Shirley replies as she leans in closer to my face and stares deeply into my eyes searching for my secretes. "You are in love with him right?"

"No... No its not like that" I answer back feeling my cheeks warm and turn red. "I'm just worried because the last time John was attacked he only survived because of me"

"Whatever you say" Shirley says as she leans back with a smirk on her face. "But the truth in the matter is written all over your face"

She leaves the room after making that comment and I don't even need to look into a mirror to know that what she says is true because I already can feel my cheeks burning hot and I know that means they are bright red. I do love John I know I do but I don't know if he likes me back. I did kiss him but that kiss was sudden and forced onto him, I think I may have freaked him out with that sudden kiss but I'll ever know as that old shadow man attacked us before I found out how he reacted to it. Know he's going to leave before I find out if he likes me or not, I have to know, I have to talk to him and I have to do it now.

* * *

John Goldie P.O.V

I'm sat on the edge of the runway watching a small fleet of fishing boats sail into a nearby port being swarmed by seagulls thinking about the time I've spent her among the witches, they saved my life, pulled me from a watery grave and gave me food and shelter even though they didn't know me. I don't think there are many people around who will do that, I don't think I'll ever be able to thank them for what they've done but I'll probably not get a chance to make it up to them since they've ha enough of me and are finally kicking me out.

I wonder where I'll be sent, will it be as nice as this place or some muddy hole on the front line. What will the people there be like? Will they be kind or mean? Strict, pushy or will they dislike and come to hate me too. Then there's Trude. I don't know how I feel about her, when I'm around her I feel safe and I know she got my back and then that kiss, that kiss felt like heaven, her soft warm lips pressed against mine leaving my lips tingling through the night. I'm going to have to say something to her, I can't leave things as they are and I need to find out if it's love I feel for her.


	15. Chapter 15

I have just entered the hanger when Trude suddenly bumps into me sending me flying backwards and her ending up on top of me when I slam into the ground, almost as soon as I regain my senses and realize what position we are in I go red in the face and I can feel my heart thump rapidly in my chest. I look at Trude laying on top of me and she looks just as red in the face as I do.

"Sorry" She says as she jumps off me. "I didn't mean to"

"It's ok" I reply as I get to my feet. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine a small thing like that won't hurt you" Gertrud says with a confident smile. "Can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure, I was on my way to see you anyway" I answer and for a split second I could of sworn she was blushing but before I could confirm my suspicions she regains her composer and her checks return t their normal colour. "So what do you want to talk about?"

"Oh well I..." Trude starts to say and for the first time since I met her I find her speechless. "I... um.. well I"

"Hurry up and say it!" Shirley shouts as she and Lucchini come out from behind some creates where they were hiding. "You will still be standing here after he leaves in two days at this rate"

"Yeah say it" Lucchini cheerfully adds as she jumps happily up and down beside Shirley.

"What are you two doing here in the first place this is supposed to be a privet conversation!" Gertrud shouts at them as she spins round to face them.

"But we wanted to see a rare sight, you nice and nervous going red in the face as you say..." Shirley begins to say with her arms stretched out wide but she stops when she notices Trude summon her familiar and cranking her knuckles. "Fine you can say it then"

"Fine" Trude snaps back as she turns round to face me again looking even more nervous now then she did before. "John I um... I... I'm in love with you" I'm taken back by this and can't get any words out of my mouth so my mouth is left hanging open until she presses her lips onto them and wraps her arms around my neck. Her lips are so warm, so soft and feel so good pressed against my own that I don't want this kiss to stop. I wrap my arms around her and start to kiss her back, we continue kissing until Shirley comes over to break us apart.

"Ok love birds that's enough you don't want Minna to catch you like this" Shirley says as she breaks us apart. "You both know she's not a fan of John"

There's a slight awkward silence in which me and Trude just stare deeply into each others eye's while Shirley smirks at us and Lucchini just stands there beside her smiling and looking happy for the two of us. She has the most beautiful brown eye's I've ever seen that seem to sparkle as the stare right back into my eye's. After a few seconds of this Lynne walk into the hanger but stop when they see what's happening, She blushes at the sight.

"John, Commander Minna what's to see you" Lynne finally tells me after she's taken in the scene.

* * *

Gertrud Barkhorn "Trude" P.O.V

I did it I really did it, I told him how I feel and he didn't reject me, he kissed me back even. I don't know why I felt nervous about this now, my heart knew already that he wouldn't reject me it was just my stupid head that didn't believe it and made me this nervous. But wait he didn't say he loved me back, he kissed me back but didn't tell me he loved me. I need to talk to him and get his reply.

* * *

John Goldie P.O.V

I'm in Commander Minna's office and have only just sat down and already I can tell Minna's mad, at least the Major's not here because she'll probable kill me over what happened to Yoshika. I can see her doing just that, cutting me kill in half to avenge her fellow countrymen. Sakamoto may not show a lot of her emotions but one thing I've learned since I came here is that she cares about Yoshika and is always giving her special training and treatment.

"Well I think you should know that Yoshika has regained conciousness and the doctors say that she'll make a full recovery in no time" Minna says and I am powerless to stop the sigh of relief that escapes my lips, I was worried about her and couldn't shake he feeling the men who attack me was lying about everything being fine when he dies. It's such a relief to hear that she'll be fine. "But you are still in trouble for dragging all of us into this mess" Minna pauses as two Britannian soldiers enter the room equipped with Liberion Thomson sub machine guns. "You are here by confined to your the medical ward for the net two days, after which you will be sent to London where you will continue your military service in the 34th Joint Airborne Division"

"I take it these two are here to keep watch on me" I reply was I nod my head back towards the guards.

"No they are here to protect you until you reach your new base" Minna answers. "You most know someone important as these orders came directly from Air Chief Marshall Trevor Maloney himself"

* * *

22:00 Hours

I lay in my bed waiting for my dinner to be brought to me. It's been difficult to lay still in my bed all day and right now with the added hunger pains in my stomach its become impossible for me to stay in bed but somehow I mange to face myself to lay still. The two Britannian soldiers stand by the door to the medical wad guarding me but at the same time they are imprisoning me in this room, stopping me from leaving and stopping me from sleep as they come in to check on me every five minutes. I know its every five minutes because I've been so bored that I started to count the seconds between their checks an d every time its been 300 seconds, five minutes.

Finally the door opens bringing in the smell of food instead of the smell of cleaning fluid, one of the guards have been cleaning his weapon all day and the smell floods the room every time the door is open. From the smell of it I'm guessing that I'm having Pasta tonight from the smell that drifts into the room and Yoshika didn't cook it because judging from the smell of it because I can smell a burnt smell. My suspicions about the food being burnt art proved right as Trude brings in a plate of Pasta that is covered with black burn marks.

"Hi John... I brought you dinner" Trude says acting just as nervous around me as she did this morning before she confessed her love for me and kissed me. "Sorry it's later then normal, we all got into an argument over who should cook, then what we should cook and as the Pasta was cooking we got into another argument over what we should cook with it which made us forget about the food and burn it, twice"

"Well it sounds like I missed out on all the fun" I reply as Trude hands me the plate.

"Yeah you did" Trude says before she goes back to being nervous. "So John this morning... Um this morning after... after I told you how... told you I... I loved you, you never... never..." Trude was stuttering and taking too long to say it but I already know what she was going to asks and cut her off with a quick kiss that may have only lasted a second but was enough to stop her talking.

"Trude I love you too" I say before kissing her again this time with more passion and for longer.


	16. Chapter 16

2 Years Ago

I run through the camp franticly looking for Sabin who's nowhere to be seen but I know he's somewhere here nearby, he run this way and must be hiding somewhere in these burning ruins as there is nowhere else he could be. Why did he have to run off? Why towards the sound of explosions? Why doesn't here come out of hiding or let me know somehow where he is? These questions are the ones I'm trying to think on in an attempt to block out the one question that keeps nagging away at my mind, what if he's dead?

"Sabin!" I shout out as I reach the centre of the camp. "Sabin where are you?"

The only thing I got in reply is the sound of burning wood and the howl of the wind. Where the hell is he?

* * *

Present Day

I wake up to find Trude asleep next to me with her head resting on my arm and her across my chest resting her palm over my heart, unfortunately she's not the only girl asleep on my bed. Erica is fast asleep beside me with her head resting on my other arm and her hand resting on my stomach. I'm too afraid to wake ever of them up as I don't think Trude will take too kindly to Erica sleeping this close to me, too make things was all three of us are in our underwear which will give Erica being here another problem. Too be honest I don't even remember falling asleep last night or Trude falling asleep or Erica even being in this room in the first place.

Come to think of it how did Erica get past the two Britannian soldiers at the door in the first place and why haven't I seen or heard them check on me since Trude entered the room with my dinner last night. Those guards should have stopped Erica from getting in here and asked both her and Trude to leave by now but no the guards haven't made any sort of move yet. I would of thought more into it but now I have a more urgent matter to deal with, Erica is just waking up and I can feel Trude start to stir on my arm.

"Good Morning" Erica says as she sleepily wakes up.

"Good Morning Erica... How did... How did you get in here the doors guarded?" I ask her as she sits up and stretches her arms.

"Oh they were fast asleep on the floor when I walked in" Erica says after letting out a yawn. "So are you going to tell me why Trude is here or do I let my imagination run wild and come up with all sorts of naughty..."

"You won't come up with anything Erica" Trude interrupts as she suddenly sits up. "And what are you doing here in the first place?"

"Like you probably found out from last night John makes a good pillow" Erica says sounding like she has a not a care in the world. "Anyway I'm more interested in why you are sleeping in here with John, so did you two have a good time together last night?"

"What?... No nothing like that happened" Trude replies as her face turns bright red.

"Oh really" Erica says with a smirk then why are you two laying together in your underwear then?" Erica asks as a sadistic smile creeps onto her face that gives me the creeps. "Also Trude you were cuddling up to him when I came in and you still were when I woke up"

"That... That... I could help how I move in my sleep" Trude responds as she does something I never suspected her doing, she pulled the blanket up over her head to hide the now bright red checks she got.

"I think you should lay off a bit Erica she looks like she had enough" I say placing my hand on Erica's shoulder, to see Trude hiding her face from embarrassment must be really rare as Erica nods at my request and quietly gets herself dressed and leaves. "It's ok now Trude she's gone so you don't need to hide yourself"

Trude slowly comes out from under the covers with her face a little less red then it was before she went went under, she looks around the room quickly before she lets out a little sigh of relief at the sight of no Erica.

"Honestly I don't know how I can deal with here sometimes" Trude says with the sigh. "I should get going to before Erica spreads some sort of rumours around"

"Well she does seem a fun person to be around" I say as we move around my bed collecting our clothes and starting to get dressed. "But she does seem to take thing too far"

"Yeah I know and she's also too carefree" Trude tells be as she starts to button up er jacket. "And she's a slob, lazy and she eats way too much candy and chocolate"

"Yeah a noticed" I agree with her as we both finished getting dressed.

"While Ill see you later" Trude says as she turns round to me.

"Have a good morning" I reply as I lean forward, we share a quick kiss before Trude walks out of the room.

* * *

Gertrud Barkhorn P.O.V

As I walk through the corridors of the base I can't help but smile, I don't know why but when ever I'm with John I feel so full of life that I can't help but smile. The only other good thing to happen this morning other than waking up to find myself in John's arms is that Erica hasn't started any rumours yet, if she did then Minna and Sakamoto would have been on me already to break me and John up and Erica, Shirley, Eila and Lucchini would have had me surrounded by now teasing me.

"Trude, where have you been I went to your room but you weren't their?" Minna says as she and Sakamoto round the corner.

"Looking for Erica she disappeared last night" I answer.

"Well Erica's in the dinning hall I just saw her eating breakfast" Sakamoto tells me.

"While now that that's settled Trude I need you to get ready as the guests for Erica's award ceremony should be arriving in an hour.


	17. Chapter 17

Looking out of the window I can see a Britannian military convoy arriving at the base. The lead vehicle of the convoy is M4 Sherman followed by a AEC Armoured Command Vehicle with two M2 Half Track filled with Royal Marines bringing up the rear. A man wearing a Britannian air force officers Uniform steps out of the AEC with a group of Royal Marines before the convey departs, on the runway a Karlsland transport plane a Junkers Ju 52 I believe with two Focke-Wulf Fw 190 that escorted the transport plane her circle over head, the transport plane disappears before I can see who was on board. Over the next half an hour cars arrive at the base carrying manly reporters to the base, no more large military convoy's arrive or aircraft land but there's a nearly constant steam of cars arriving and a cargo ship has stopped just of shore for some reason.

After a while I go back to lay on my bed and prepare myself for what is sure to be another boring day. After about an hour there's a knock on the door and the man in the Britannian air force uniform steps into the room flanked on both sides by a Royal Marine. The two guards at the door shut the door behind him locking me inside with this man who for some reason is making me feel uneasy.

"So your the ghost the witches fished out of the sea then" The man says to me in voice that sound full of confidence and superiority. "I am Air Chief Marshall Trevor Maloney of the Royal Air Force and I have a few question for you"

"Yes sir" I reply trying to figure out what he'll ask me. "Ask away sir"

"Excellent now first ff lets start with this" Maloney says as he pulls out of his pocket a photo. "Do you remember this?"

I take a look at the photo a freeze, the photo is of the day me and Trude went into town and got ambushed. This photo shows me and Trude drinking tea right before we were attacked. "Yes this picture was taken the day me and Captain Barkhorn went into town for supplies"I answer as I give him back the photo.

"Good so you remember what happened next then" Maloney asks as he puts the photo back in his pocket. "That you murdered two of my men when they tired to arrest you for treason"

"What are you on about they attacked me and I haven't done anything that could get me charged with treason?" I asks as the two guards walk in aiming their guns at me.

"Any soldier who dates a filthy witch is a traitor in my book and also you killed to S.O.E operatives since the witches found you in the sea and one of my officers a few days ago" Maloney answers as he turns to walk out of the room. "I'll see you hang for loving that witch but I think I'll make you watch me kill her first"

"Kneel and put your hands on top of your head" One of the guards orders.

I comply and do as he tells me but only so I can catch them off guard, I can't let them take me, if they take me then they will kill Trude. So I'm just going to comply until I spot the right opportunity to strike. I see that opportunity as soon as Maloney leaves and the guard is about to cuff me. I punch him between the legs and use his crumpled body as a shield when the other three open fire, the bullets rip into the guards body killing him but keeping me safe. I grab the guards pistol and fire three shoots into the chest of the other guard killing him before his body hit the ground, I fire another six shots at the Marines emptying my clip but fail to hit them as they are not as slow as the two guards were and they dived into cover before my bullets struck them.

I grab another magazine from the guards pocket and also dive into cover before reloading. I look back towards where I saw the Marines take cover only when I emerge from behind my cover something hard slams into the side of my face knocking me straight to the ground. I look up and spot one of the Marines stood above me about to bring down his foot onto my face, I roll out of his foots way just in time before slams into the ground. Before the Marine can launch another attack I turn back and punch him as hard as I can with my right hand and than I pistol wipe him with the gun in my left hand as I get back up to my feet, I quickly put a bullet into his head before I return to cover and try to spot the other Marine.

I can't spot him anywhere, I most have looked all over this room a dozen times but I can't spot him or his gun barrel sticking out from anywhere. Then I hear that sound that no one wants to hear, a sound that makes me sweat in fear and feel so sick with fear that I think I might actually throw up. The sound that I just heard, the sound that fills me with terror is the sound of a gun clicking behind me followed by the the feeling of a gun barrel pressed into the back of my head.

"On your feet now" The Marine orders as he presses the barrel of his gun harder against my skull. "Your lucky the that Maloney wants you alive otherwise I'd put a bullet in the back of your head right now for what you did to my friends here"

* * *

Gertrud Barkhorn P.O.V

I've been stood beside the stage watching Erica receive her medal for shooting down over three hundred Neuroi, here today are Air Chief Marshall Trevor Maloney of the RAF, Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen of the Luftwaffe and over twenty reporters are here to watch Erica receive her reward for her service. Everything was going as it should have until Maloney disappeared, shortly after he vanished gun fire erupted from the base and two of Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen SS guards open fire killing his other four guards as well as himself. As soon as Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen hits the ground twelve Royal Marines come out of nowhere and surround the witches and reporters.

"What is going on here?" Minna demands as another four Marines arrive from inside the building.

"This is what you would call an hostel takeover" Maloney says as he exits the building quickly followed by two other Marines. "And this is only the beginning"

"Your crazy you'r never be able to take over this country with hand full of Marines and a tank" I tell him as he walks over towards us.

"Oh but I have a powerful ally to help me" Maloney answers as the cargo ship just of shore opens up its cargo hold allow forty small dart shaped Neuroi to exit its hold and swam the sky over the base quickly shooting down the two Junkers Ju 52. "With the Neuroi on my side I believe I can"


	18. Chapter 18

The Marine is leading me through the base with his gun still pressing hard into the back of my head, I have to get away and save Trude and the rest of the witches. I just need to wait for my chance, it's different this time, this time it's one on one and I think I can take him. My chance comes when he leads me down onto the staircase and I feel the pressure of his gun lessen against the back of my head. I swiftly duck down and quickly slam my elbow into his stomach in one quick movement causing him to double over in pain, I follow up that move with a upper cut to his chin before he can recover knocking him out cold.

Great one down and a small army to go. I search the Marine, relieve him of his Stem sub machine gun and pistol before heading to the nearest window so I can get a better look on what is happening. The situation on the ground isn't good, even from up here I can see that the witches are in trouble. They are surrounded by Marines and two SS soldiers while Minna speaks to Maloney. The sky is filled with dart shaped Neuroi taking off from the cargo ship just off shore and the Sherman tank is just rounding the corner, turning its turret to aim at the witches.

I have to move fast if I want to save them, they may have me outnumbered but I have the element of surprise and and can hit a target with ease. I don't know how good a so hot Maloney's men are but I don't think they can be as accurate as me, the only complication is the tank and Neuroi. If I can get to an AA gun on the roof of the base then I stand a chance. That's it, I've got it now, I'll deal with the Neuroi then the tank before I tackle the Marines and Maloney. Hopefully I can create a detraction for the witches to escape and fight back.

I move as quickly run back up the stairs as fast heading for the roof, I actually make it to the roof before I run into my first problem. On the roof by the AA gun are two Marines, one good thing is that they don't seem to be on guard and aren't even looking my way. This should be easy two shots to their heads but no, I can't, if Maloney hears those gun shots then he might harm the witches below. I have to take them out quiet and quick in order to help the witches, not only that but if the Neuroi hear my shots then they could take out the AA gun before I can turn it on them. Quick and quiet that's the only way this will work, my only chance of success.

So here goes nothing, I crawl along the floor towards the gun keeping as low and quiet as I can while silently prying that the Marines and Neuroi won't spot me till I want them to. Thankful I make it to within arms reach of the Marines and strike. I throw my knife into the neck of one of the Marines severing the artery before wrapping my arms around the neck of the other Marine. The man struggles for several minutes before I feel him go limp in my arms and his rapid pulse in his neck stops. That was almost too perfect, both Marines dead and no one else noticed. Now onto the Neuroi, this AA gun should make short work of them, it's a Karlsland 3.7 cm Flak, it's four barrels can put out an impressive fire rate devastating anything caught in its sights.

I get to the gun and find it ready to fire at a moments notice, all I have to do is aim and fire. That's exactly what I do, I open fire bring down three Neuroi in quick succession as the fly over the base. The Neuroi shatter into fragments of beautiful sparkling shards that rain down onto the base no dealt alerting Maloney to my presence. I don't have much time to relax as five more Neuroi head straight for me, I have only seconds to react before they take me out but somehow I make it, pull the trigger and bright down Neuroi after Neuroi until all five of them are nothing more then fragments of sparkling light. The Neuroi begin to swarm me now and even more pure out of the cargo ship easily replacing the Neuroi I just shot down. Will if I'm going to die here I might as well see how many of these bastards I can take with me.

* * *

Gertrud Barkhorn "Trude" P.O.V

"What's happening?" Yoshika asks as five Neuroi shatter against a hail of gun fire.

"Someone must be fighting back" Minna answers as the Neuroi start to swarm over the base.

One good thing that happened is that everyone's eyes are on the sky as Neuroi after Neuroi are shot down. This gives me the perfect chance to strike and fight back, I grab the gun off of a nearby Marine and then punch him as hard as I can sending him flying back into the side of the base. Before the rest of Marines know what hit her I open fire with the Marines gun cutting down three Marines and one of the traitorous SS men instantly and forcing the others into cover with Maloney running like the coward he is into the nearest building. Looking around as I pick up the MP40 off the still warm dead bleeding body of the SS man I see the reporters running around like headless chickens and Major Sakamoto following my lead by cutting down two Marines and the other SS man with her Katana, Minna draws her Luger and kills the officer commanding the Marines with a shot through the head and Erica and Perrine lunch a combined attack against the Neuroi sending a tornado of lightening into the Neuroi above destroying at least half of them. Less than a second later Eila grabs a gun of a dead Marine and cuts down a Marine as he is about to fire at Sanya, Shirley grabs an MP40 and uses her speed to outflank two Marines killing them both before they can react and Yoshika is running around with Lynne healing wounded reporters.

Now its just that tank that threatens us, we have no anti tank weapons on us and the main cannon on the M4 has us out ranged. Ever by luck or skill Perrine takes out the tank with her lightening spell, her bolt of lightening travelled down the barrel of the cannon striking the shell loaded in the gun and causing the turret to b blown apart just as a plan to flip the tank over was forming in my mind. With the loss of there tank the Marines begin to retreat into the building that Maloney disappeared into just moment ago, I empty my clip by firing every bullet I had into a Marine who was running away with his back to me, between everyone else another two Marines are kill and only four mange to get inside before they too were cut down. I look up at the sky just in time to see the last Neuroi destroyed.


	19. Chapter 19

I empty the last of my ammo into the Neuroi purging the sky of their presence, I can only hope that the witches taken the opportunity I gave them to escape amongst the destruction and rain of shards. I couldn't hear anything over the gunfire I was putting out but I know the witches at least tried to escape as a lightening hurricane filled the sky destroying a fair amount of Neuroi with it.

At least I know I have one less enemy to deal with but I still must find to the witches and see if they are alright then I'm going after Maloney. I pick up a Sten sub machine gun and head down the stairs heading straight for the courtyard, straight for the witches and Maloney. I only make it down the first few floors before one of my questions are answered, running up towards me are Minna, Erica and Trude who has a look of relief on her face despite her blatant attempts to hide it when our eyes meet.

"John, I take it you were the one on that AA gun and left that bloody mess in the medical ward" Minna says as we meet each other half way on the stairs.

"Yeah it was, Maloney attacked me and I run for the gun when I saw the Neuroi flying around outside" I answer her. "Where's everyone else are they ok?"

"Don't worry they are fine, Sakamoto is protecting them as they treat and help the reporters caught in the crossfire" Minna tells me. "Good job by the way I can see now why you have a high kill count"

"Thank you, by the way where's Maloney?" I ask her as she turns round facing back down the stairs she just climbed.

"He's somewhere in the base and if you at to hunt him down you are welcome to join us" Minna replies as she starts to walk back down the stairs.

"Just try and stop me" I say as I follow her down the stairs.

"Hey are you alright?" Trude asks as she walks along side me in a quiet voice so Minna and Erica who's walking on ahead of us don't hear.

"Yeah I'm fine you don't have to worry about me" I answers as we finally reach the ground floor. "How about you?"

"Are you kidding these punks couldn't even scratch me if I let the"Trude tells me with a confident smile on her face that appears and disappears in quick succession. "They never stood a chance"

"Everyone wait here" Minna orders as she raises a hand to also signal us to stop. A white glow starts to illuminate Minna's body and a pair of wolf ears pop grow out of her head and a tail grows out of her lower back. She closes her eyes like she's concentrating on something and stays like that for roughly thirty seconds before she opens her eyes and turns round to face us. "I found them, they are in the basement, there are six men in total and four of them are covering the only way in while a fifth is standing next to the person I believe is Maloney"

"How to you do that?" Is all I can say as I try to stop my mouth from hitting the ground.

"Oh I haven' told you, my magical ability allows me to sense nearby people" Minna answers as the fox ears and tail shrink back into her body. "Anyway back on topic if we use the door then we will come under heavy fire almost as soon as we touch the doorhandle so does anyone have any suggestions"

"I have one" I tell her after a few second of silence. "Couldn't we blow a hole in the floor above them ad drop down on top of them"

"Yeah that could work but we should attack a multiple points at once" Minna replies as she rubs her chin in thought. "Trude, Erica grab some explosives and blow a hole through the dining room floor and John come with me we are going to blow a hole through the briefing room floor. One more thing Erica, Trude wait for me to contact you before detonating your charges"

* * *

Gertrud Barkhorn "Trude"

Five Minutes Later

Me and Erica have just finished planting are charges in a way that would make the floor collapse but leave enough space that we will be have some of the floor left to stand on. Now we wait with my fingers on the detonator ready to blow the floor as soon as get the word while Erica has her gun ready pointing down at where the hole will be with her fingers ready on the trigger, My own gun is by my side ready and waiting for me to use as soon as the floor collapses. We are ready and waiting but the waiting is killing me. The longer we wait the more I get impatient, I know a soldier has to be patient but when ever I have to wait to go into battle I always can't help myself.

"Trude, Erica are you ready?" Minna asks over the radio.

"Yes ma'am everything is ready on our end" I answer as I grip the detonator harder, so hard that I fear I might brake it but can't force myself to loosen my grip.

"Good on the count of three then" Minna relies as I ready my hand to pull down the plunger and come crashing down on the traitors. "3...2...1"

As soon as Minna reaches one I pull down the plunger sending the floor crashing down into the basement. Erica fires into a shadow moving around in the dust cloud and even the thick cloud of dust I can see the shadow fall to the ground. I quickly have my gun in my hand and with on nod between Erica and myself we jump down into the basement jut as the dust cloud is clearing.

I scan the room looking though my gun sights for any sign of the traitors and when I finally see one coughing from the dust I don't hesitate to pull the trigger blowing his brains out with three bullets through his skull. I can hear gun fire from Minna and John and if on cue a Marine falls to the ground with bullets still ripping into his chest. Minna and John walk round to corner seconds later.

"Trude we took down two of them you?" Minna asks as she and John regroup with us.

"We also got two" I answer as some round object rolls in the middle of our group, it take me a second to realize what the object is but when it finally clicks in my head I know we only have second left to react. "Grenade!"

Minna and Erica put up their shields but I don't, I tackle John to the ground before I put up my shield to protect us both only just casting it in time to stop the deadly rain of metal shooting out of the grenade. Almost as soon as the grenade goes of gun fire rips into our group forcing everyone into cover, judging by the rate of fire and the amount of fire hammering us it must be a light machine gun that has us in its sight.

I try to fire back but every time I do I only manage to fire on or two shots at a time before the machine gun forces me back behind cover. Erica tries to flank the machine gun but she only ends up becoming pinned behind a stone pillar, Minna also tries to return fire but she's having the same result as me. John has more luck by reaching a dead Marine and throwing one of his grenades at the gunner silencing him once and for all. After that we find Maloney cowering in a corner with his eyes wet from tears of crying and failure.


	20. Chapter 20

The four of us stand over the cowering Maloney keeping our guns pointed at him which causes him to shake with fear. Minna approaches the cowering traitor while Trude, Erica and myself cover her keeping our guns firmly pointed at this poor excuse of a man's head. The Air Chief looks up at Minna from where he was kneeling and the fear in his eye's are unmistakable, the fear in him is so great that I can see it in him and smell it.

"Trevor Maloney, you are under arrest for treason against the Britannian government" Minna tells him as she takes a piece of rope out of her jacket pocket. "Please do not resist as I'm sure most of my girls are just waiting for an excuse to shoot you where you stand"

"You filthy witch!" Maloney shouts at her as he spits in her face. "I'll get you for this, mark my words on day you will be begging me for mercy as you watch each one of your little sluts die slow and agonizing deaths"

"To be honest I very much doubt that as where you are going is the deepest hell-hole this country has to offer" Minna replies as she wipes his spit from her face and ties Maloney's hands so tightly that the pain causes him to wince. "I hardly believe we will see each other again after today" Minna turns to face us after she finished her sentence. "Trude, Erica guard him and John please come with me"

I follow Minna out of the basement and into a nearby room out of ear shot from everyone else. The room we are in looks like it was used for storage because the entire room is filled with cardboard boxes and only a small dim light lights the room. I turn to face Minna and don't know what to make of her face, it's filled with hate and anger but also at the same time pride and gratitude and looking at her I'm not sure she knows what she is feeling right now.

"John I want to say that... I can't believe I'm saying this but I want to tell you that you did a good job and I'm proud of you" Minna says and even her voice sounds uncertain. "If it wasn't for your shooting on that AA gun then we wouldn't have been able to stop Malone and Britannian may have fallen to the Neuroi"

"Thank you ma'am" I reply trying to stay on her good side while she' showing it to me.

"No John I should be the one thanking you on behalf of the entire squadron but there is one thing I need to talk to you about" Minna tells me as her voice becomes more serous and determined. "John your relationship with Trude is against regulation but seeing how happy you make her I will turn a blind eye to it however..." Minna says poking her finger into my chest. "If you break her heat or get her knocked up then you will pay for it"

"Ok I understand I promise not to give you a new squad member" I promise as she stops digging her finger into my chest.

"Glad we understand each other oh and by the way since you make her so happy you will not be transferred out of the squad" Minna says just before she leaves the room not even giving me a chance to reply.

* * *

1 Hour Later

After an hour a convoy of Britannain soldier arrive at the base taking Maloney into their care before anyone can get a word into them. There are about fifty Britannian troops now in the base, four Spitfires fly over head and two destroyers secure the cargo ship just off shore. Minna and Sakamoto is busy speaking to the Britannain soldiers commander while me and the rest of the witches sit in the common room waiting and watching, apart from Sanya and Erica who are fast asleep. We all sit around he room in silence barely saying a word to each other unless its necessary so for the most part we are silent, mainly for the amount of death that happened today and the shock of it all has combined together to make the atmosphere in the room really unpleasant.

Me and Trude lay of to the side of the room away from the others wrapped in each others arms without a care in the world, all I really care about right now if the warmth of her body next to mine and the softness of her hair as I run my hand through it gently stroking her head. This is probably the most relaxed I'e been since I got her and the most relaxed I've ever seen Trude as she lays in my arms ,head resting on my chest listening to the beat of my heart as she drifts in and out of sleep. The other give us looks ranging from jealousy to happiness as hey see us laid together, Shirley even patted me on the should giving me a big smile at one point while Trude was asleep say silently that she approved of our relationship and was happy for us.

"Hey John" Trude quietly says.

"Yeah"

"I never actually thanked you" Trude tells me as she lifts her head so she can look me in the eye. "Without you we would have been captured by that traitor and..."

"There's no need to thank me" I say as I place a finger to her lips. "For you I would go to hell and back in order to save you"

"John that's..." Trude began to say but caught on fast that her words have failed her so she instead leans into kiss me.

Our lips lock on to each other after what felt like an entirety apart and I can't help but take in all her lips have to offer, her lips are so soft and warm that they warm my body. We keep our lips locked onto each other until we need to break for air which eventually we need to, when we break are lips apart I can't help but feel reluctant to do so and I can tell by the feel of her lips that she was just as reluctant as I was to break the kiss.

"That kiss was more than enough for an reward Trude" I say as we lay millimetres apart with are lips so close together that I can feel the warmth of her lips radiating onto mine.

"Well then I guess I know how to award you in the future" Trude says with a large smile on her face. "That will be your reward for years to come"

"Well then I better get earn some rewards then" I reply while returning the smile before locking onto her lips once again.

* * *

**While this is the end of the story the bad guys been beaten and the boy got his girl. Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed it.**


End file.
